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SELECTED  ADDRESSES 


\\ 


THE 
REMINISCENCES     OF 
JAMES  BURRILL  ANGELL 

With  Portrait.    12mo. 


LONGMANS,  GREEN,  AND  CO. 


Selected 

Addresses 


BY 

JAMES  BURRILL  ANGELL 


LONGMANS,   GREEN,    AND    CO 

FOURTH  AVENUE  AND  30TH    STREET.  NEW  YORK 

LONDON,  BOMBAY,  AND  CALCUTTA 

1912 


85896 


COPYRIGHT,    1912,    BY 
LONGMANS,    GREEN,    AND   CO. 


TRB-PLIMPTON-PKBSS 

[  W  •  D  •  O  ] 
lfORWOOO-MAS(-U«S>A 


LA 
PREFACE 

1  HE  publication  last  year  of  my  volume  of 
"Reminiscences"  called  forth  requests  to  me  for 
the  publication  of  a  volume  containing  some  of 
the  numerous  Addresses  which  I  had  given  dur- 
ing my  Presidency  of  the  University  of  Michi- 
gan. In  compliance  with  these  requests  I  have 
selected  the  Addresses  here  published. 

I  have  chosen  first  those  which  discuss  the 
problems  involved  in  the  conduct  of  State  Uni- 
versities, and  especially  of  the  University  of 
Michigan,  including  a  Memorial  Discourse  on 
Dr.  Frieze,  whose  services  to  this  University 
were  of  such  marked  value. 

I  have  chosen,  secondly,  a  few  Addresses  which 
I  hope  may  be  of  special  interest  to  the  students 
who  sat  under  my  instruction  in  the  History  of 
Diplomacy  and  in  International  Law. 

University  of  Michigan, 
March  18,  1912. 


Iv] 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

I    Inaugural  Address .         3 

University  of  Michigan,  June  28,  1871 

II    The    Higher    Education.     A    Plea   for 

Making  it  Accessible  to  All      .      ,       37 

III  Commemorative    Oration 63 

University  of  Michigan,  1887 

IV  State  Universities 103 

University  of  Missouri,  1895 

V    The  Old  College  and  the  New  Univer- 
sity   129 

University  of  Chicago,  1899 

VI    A  Memorial  Discourse  :   Henry  Simmons 

Frieze 157 

VII    The  Influence  of  a  Lawyer  Outside  of 

his  Profession 191 

VIII    The  Inadequate  Recognition  of  Diplo- 
matists BY  Historians 219 

IX    The  European  Concert  and  the  Monroe 

Doctrine 237 

X    Present  Problems  in  the  Relations  of 

Missions  to  Governments  ....     259 

XI    The  Turkish  Capitulations     ....     275 


vii  ] 


INAUGURAL  ADDRESS 
UNIVERSITY    OF    MICHIGAN 

JUNE  28,   1871 


INAUGURAL   ADDRESS 
UNIVERSITY   OF   MICHIGAN,  1871 

1  HIS  University  sustains  vital  relations  to  the 
State  whose  name  it  bears.  Though  it  owes  its 
chief  resources  to  an  endowment  from  Congress,  its 
organization,  its  work,  and  its  fortunes  have  been 
so  largely  under  the  control  of  the  State  that  it  may 
be  justly  termed  the  child  of  the  State.  If  we  may 
regard  the  repeated  appropriations  of  money  to  the 
University  by  the  Legislature  as  establishing  the 
policy  of  the  Commonwealth  to  recognize  a  parental 
duty  to  this  school  of  learning,  that  simple  fact 
implies  a  just  and  lofty  conception  of  the  function 
of  the  State  and  of  the  University.  Such  action 
argues  large  and  generous  ideas  of  the  powers  and 
duties  of  the  State.  It  contemplates  civil  society 
as  charged  not  merely  with  the  negative  work  of 
repressing  disorder  and  crime,  but  also  with  the  higher 
positive  office  of  promoting  by  all  proper  means  the 
intellectual  and  the  moral  growth  of  the  citizens. 
It  repudiates  the  teachings  of  those  shallow  and 
short-sighted  economists  who  would  limit  the  public 
provision  of  educational  facilities  to  the  minimum 
with  which  the  State  can  possibly  exist.  It  assumes 
that  it  is  just  and  wise  for  the  State  to  place  the 

[3] 


SELECTED      ADDRESSES 


means  of  obtaining  generous  culture  within  the  reach 
of  the  humblest  and  poorest  child  upon  its  soil. 
It  has  lying  behind  it  the  old  Aristotelian  conception 
of  poHtical  society,  as  existing  "not  merely  for  the 
sake  of  joint  hvelihood,  but  for  honorable  deeds." 
It  is  in  complete  harmony  with  John  Milton's  grand 
idea  of  the  State  as  instituted  for  something  far  higher 
than  mere  material  interests.  Is  not  that  the  only 
conception  of  the  State  which  Christian  philosophy 
will  justify? 

The  distinguishing  glory  of  several  of  the  younger 
States  of  the  Union  is  not  found  chiefly  in  that 
marvellous  energy  and  unparalleled  material  pros- 
perity which  are  so  often  and  so  justly  the  theme  of 
praise,  but  in  that  wise  prevision  with  which,  while 
roads  and  bridges  and  comfortable  houses  and  many 
of  the  other  necessities  of  civilized  life  were  still 
unsupplied,  they  consecrated  a  liberal  share  of  their 
wealth  of  lands  to  the  endowment  of  schools.  Many 
of  the  founders  of  these  States  are  still  living  to  enjoy 
the  beneficent  triumphs  which  are  due  to  their  fore- 
sight. They  see  about  them  not  only  thoroughly 
organized  systems  of  common  school  education,  but 
also  colleges  and  universities,  which  may  soon  rival 
in  the  amplitude  and  completeness  of  their  outfit 
the  oldest  and  strongest  in  the  nation.  As  we  gather 
here  with  glad  hearts  on  this  festival  day,  we  cannot 
but  recognize  it  as  a  fresh  honor  to  the  State  that  on 
yonder  Campus  a  new  and  spacious  hall  is  soon  to 
lift  its  fair  proportions  towards  the  skies  to  testify, 

[4] 


INAUGURAL  ADDRESS,  1871 

SO  long  as  it  stands,  to  the  abiding  and  increasing 
interest  of  the  State  in  the  welfare  of  this  Institution 
—  an  interest  evinced  not  more  by  the  liberality  of 
the  legislative  appropriation  than  by  the  heartiness 
and  promptness  with  which  it  was  granted. 

If  the  State,  which  thus  establishes  and  sustains 
its  University,  shows  a  high  ideal  of  work,  so  must 
the  University,  which  worthily  serves  such  a  State, 
be  ever  inspired  by  the  loftiest  conceptions  of  its 
duty.  In  training  the  citizens,  who  are  to  shape 
the  destinies  of  the  State,  it  must  aspire  to  the  Mil- 
tonian  conception  of  education,  and  do  its  utmost  to 
fit  them  "to  perform  justly,  skilfully  and  magnan- 
imously all  the  offices,  both  private  and  public, 
of  peace  and  war."  It  was  with  no  exaggerated 
estimate  of  the  functions  and  power  of  a  university 
that  Stein  and  William  von  Humboldt  and  Niebuhr 
and  Schleiermacher  and  Savigny  and  their  coadju- 
tors laid  the  foundations  of  that  splendid  school 
at  Berlin  as  the  mightiest  instrumentality  in  lifting 
Prussia  from  her  deep  abasement  to  that  height  of 
power  from  which  she  could  look  down  in  defiance 
upon  her  conqueror  from  beyond  the  Rhine.  Could 
the  world  ask  for  a  more  brilliant  vindication  than 
it  has  just  witnessed,  of  the  wisdom  of  Prussia  and 
the  other  German  States,  which  have  so  generously 
sustained  their  great  schools  of  learning?  It  was  the 
scholarship  and  genius  and  discipline  of  Kant  and 
Nitzsch  and  Mueller  and  Vangerow  and  Liebig  and 
such  as  they,  no  less  than  the  administrative  ability 

[5] 


SELECTED      ADDRE.SSES 


of  Von  Roon  and  the  strategy  of  Von  Moltke,  which 
bore  the  banners  of  the  Fatherland  in  triumph  across 
the  murderous  ravines  of  Gravelotte  and  encom- 
passed Sedan  in  the  fatal  walls  of  fire.  The  Univer- 
sity must  interpret  its  vital  connection  with  the 
State  as  a  call  to  the  largest  and  best  work  attainable 
with  its  means.  In  that  call  it  must  find  the  stimulus 
to  all  strenuous  endeavor.  It  may  determine  the 
culture,  the  civihzation,  nay,  it  may  save  the  very 
fife  of  the  State,  and  is  justly  held  responsible  for 
the  faithful  discharge  of  its  sacred  duty. 

The  University  in  performing  this  work  must 
have  many  fruitful  relations  besides  these  to  the 
State  which  nourishes  it.  It  cannot  lead  a  fife  of 
isolation.  It  cannot  bound  its  vision  or  its  work  by 
the  narrow  fines  of  a  State  or  of  a  nation.  It  is  a 
part  of  the  great  world  of  scholars.  It  hospitably 
flings  its  gates  wide  open  to  all  seekers  after  knowl- 
edge, wherever  their  home.  Remembering  that  it  is 
one  of  the  great  sisterhood  of  schools,  it  constantly 
welcomes  the  light  which  the  experience  of  other 
universities  may  shed  upon  its  path.  The  unprece- 
dented interest,  which  is  felt  both  in  Europe  and 
in  this  country,  in  determining  the  aims  of  higher 
education,  and  the  best  methods  of  conducting  it, 
lends  a  new  charm  and  importance  to  the  life  of 
every  university.  It  gives  fresh  impulse  and  enthu- 
siasm to  us  all  to  feel  that  the  scholars  of  every 
nation  are  profoundly  concerned  in  our  work,  and 
are  aiding  in  solving  the  educational  problems  which 

[6] 


INAUGURAL     ADDRESS,     1871 

are  tasking  our  powers.  Never  before  was  the  high 
calling  of  the  teacher  so  delightful  to  the  true  man, 
who  has  his  mind  open  to  the  suggestions  which  come 
pouring  in  upon  him  from  every  quarter,  and  who 
knows  that  the  whole  world  is  ready  to  weigh  with 
candor  any  worthy  suggestions  which  he  may  be 
prepared  to  offer.  The  public  mind  is  now  in  a 
plastic,  impressible  state,  and  every  vigorous  college, 
nay,  every  capable  worker,  may  help  to  shape  its 
decisions  upon  education. 

In  England  the  discussion  which  has  been  going 
on  for  the  last  twenty-five  years  concerning  reform 
in  the  great  schools  and  universities  continues  with 
unabated  zeal,  grows  more  and  more  searching,  and 
engages  the  most  gifted  minds.  The  ablest  scholars 
are  employed  by  Parliament  to  expose  to  the  light  of 
day  the  defects  of  the  English  schools,  and  to  hunt 
through  the  world  for  ideas  which  may  serve  to 
improve  the  English  methods  of  instruction.  Almost 
every  leading  man  in  Great  Britain  has  been  con- 
strained to  discuss  in  some  form  the  educational 
questions  of  the  day.  It  is  fresh  in  the  recollection 
of  all  how  the  present  brilliant  and  eccentric  Chan- 
cellor of  the  Exchequer  has  caricatured  the  Oxford 
training  in  that  fascinating  style  which  he  owes  in 
so  great  measure  to  that  very  training,  and  has 
pierced  his  venerable  mother  with  arrows  which  he 
drew  from  her  own  quiver.  Mr.  Froude  left  his 
portrait  of  Elizabeth  unfinished  on  his  easel  and 
journeyed  to  Scotland  to  astonish  the  world  with 

[7] 


SELECTED      ADDRESSES 


his  commendation  of  what  the  Germans  might  call 
a  bread  and  butter  education.  While  Oxford 
scholars  were  disparaging  the  classics,  Mr.  Mill,  the 
great  utilitarian,  came  forward  to  delight  and 
instruct  his  hearers  with  a  hearty  recognition  of 
the  value  of  classical  culture,  and  with  a  most  admi- 
rable presentation  of  the  relations  of  the  various 
departments  of  human  knowledge.  The  echoes  of 
the  recent  discussions  in  the  House  of  Lords  on  the 
influence  of  Oxford  life  on  religion  have  hardly  died 
away  on  our  ears.  Carlyle,  Bain,  Spencer,  Farrar, 
Huxley,  Arnold,  and  how  many  others  have  been 
making  invaluable  contributions  to  the  elucidation 
of  the  questions  which  are  raised  in  the  work  of 
education. 

Germany  was  never  more  busy  than  now  in  per- 
fecting her  systems  of  higher  education.  Almost 
the  first  utterance  of  the  French  Academy  of  Sci- 
ence, after  the  fall  of  the  late  imperial  government 
permitted  freedom  of  speech,  was  an  urgent  demand 
for  the  reorganization  of  the  University  to  carry 
the  higher  education  of  France  up  towards  the 
German  standard.  Austria  is  showing  that  the  secu- 
larization of  education  has  opened  a  new  career  to 
her  schools.  And  Italy  is  striving  to  renew  the 
faded  glory  of  those  ancient  universities  which  once 
drew  thousands  of  students  from  the  whole  civilized 
world. 

If  we  turn  to  this  country,  we  see  that  during  the 
present  generation  there  has  been  more  discussion 

[8] 


INAUGURAL     ADDRESS,     1871 

of  the  problems  of  collegiate  and  university  training 
than  had  been  known  before  since  the  planting  of 
the  New  England  colonies.  College  life  in  the  main 
flowed  on  in  one  unbroken  current  from  the  founda- 
tion of  Harvard  College  till  the  fifth  decade  of  this 
century.  Our  colleges  were  constructed  on  the. 
English  model,  and  were  all  conducted  in  essentially 
the  same  spirit.  There  was  nowhere  such  question- 
ing of  the  wisdom  of  the  one  course  as  was  raised 
so  long  ago  as  Bacon's  time  concerning  the  English 
colleges. 

'During  the  last  twenty  years  not  only  educational 
journals,  but  the  secular  and  the  religious  journals, 
the  magazines  and  reviews,  college  faculties  and 
corporations,  the  patrons  of  colleges,  and  all  that 
great  company  of  people  who  are  interested  in  the 
character  of  our  higher  education,  have  been  vig- 
orously arguing  to  determine  what  the  American 
college  should  aim  to  be  and  to  do.;  This  has  been 
a  period  of  groping,  of  theorizing,  of  experimenting, 
rather  than  of  confident  progress  in  any  one  path, 
which  all  would  be  ready  to  approve  as  the  true  one. 
Perhaps  the  element  of  highest  value  in  this  move- 
ment has  been  the  wellnigh  universal  avowal  of 
the  belief  that  there  is  something  yet  to  be  learned 
concerning  the  aims  and  methods  of  higher  education. 
This  expectant,  receptive,  hopeful  attitude  of  the 
guides  of  academic  work  has  been  itself  a  prophecy 
and  a  guaranty  of  improvement.  Stolid  compla- 
cency in  a  stereotyped  system  is  the  one  insuperable 

[9] 


SELECTED      ADDRESSES 


barrier  to  advance.  Such  epochs  of  nascent,  for- 
mative life,  what  the  Germans  would  call  eras  of 
becoming,  of  development,  are  always  the  most  in- 
tensely interesting  in  history. 

And  it  is  in  precisely  this  epoch  that  this  Uni- 
versity has  been  growing  from  infancy  to  maturity, 
and  it  is  its  glory  and  the  glory  of  the  wise  and 
good  men  who  have  shaped  its  fortunes  that  it 
has  played  a  most  important  and  honorable  part 
in  solving  the  collegiate  problems  of  the  day.  Its 
great  influence  in  academic  circles  is  admitted  even 
by  those  who  do  not  sympathize  with  the  views 
which  have  here  been  cherished.  It  is  too  early 
to  sum  up  the  arguments  in  the  discussions  which 
have  been  carried  on  by  college  men  for  the  last 
few  years,  and  to  expect  that  all  will  acquiesce  in 
any  verdict  which  can  yet  be  rendered.  But  twenty 
years  suffice  to  show  whether  there  is  a  real  drift 
of  the  main  tide  of  intelligent  public  opinion  in 
any  direction.  And  there  can  be  no  doubt  that 
there  has  been  a  real  drift  towards  some  of  the 
important  positions  early  taken  by  this  University. 
Two  of  these  positions  in  particular  may  be 
named:  first,  the  provision  for  a  choice  between 
different  courses  of  study,  and  secondly,  the  fur- 
nishing of  larger  opportunities  in  the  Modern  Lan- 
guages, in  History,  and  in  the  Natural  Sciences  than 
were  formerly  afforded.  Nearly  every  college  in  the 
land  has  made  changes  in  its  plan  of  work  which 
recognize  in  a  greater  or  less  degree  the  desirable- 

[10] 


INAUGURAL     ADDRESS,     1871 

ness  of  accomplishing  these  ends.  It  may  be  fairly 
claimed  that  the  satisfactory  results  of  the  experi- 
ments here  have  not  been  without  a  decided  influ- 
ence upon  some  of  the  older  institutions  of  the 
East,  while  they  have  evidently  determined  the  form 
of  the  State  Universities  which  have  been  springing 
up  in  the  West.  These  are  facts  on  which  this 
University  may  fairly  congratulate  itself.  These  are 
triumphs  for  which  it  should  gratefully  cherish  the 
names  of  my  learned  and  efficient  predecessors  and 
of  their  faithful  coadjutors  in  the  Board  of  Regents 
and  in  the  Faculty. 

But  never  in  this  era  of  educational  discussion 
and  experimental  activity  has  there  been  a  moment 
when  the  University  could  hope  to  learn  so  much 
from  looking  abroad  as  at  the  present,  or  when  its 
own  example  could  so  profoundly  affect  other  schools 
of  learning;  for  at  no  time  have  the  colleges  and 
universities  been  so  energetic  in  the  trial  of  various 
methods,  and  at  no  time  have  they  been  so  ready  to 
welcome  new  ideas  of  college  work,  from  whatever 
source  they  may  come.  While  our  contributions  to 
the  solution  of  all  the  problems  of  university  life 
will  be  measured  at  their  true  value,  we  may  perhaps 
well  remember  that  academic  circles  just  now  watch 
with  especial  interest  for  the  light  which  our  expe- 
rience may  furnish  on  two  points:  first,  the  conse- 
quences in  the  long  run  of  the  dependence  of  the 
University  on  the  State,  and  secondly,  the  results 
of  the  admission  of  women  to  the  University. 

[11] 


SELECTED      ADDRESSES 


It  is  still  asked  with  some  solicitude  at  the  older 
denominational  colleges  whether  the  State  can  be 
relied  on  to  furnish  the  needed  support  for  this  large 
and  growing  University,  and  whether  the  University 
can  be  guarded  against  the  perils  of  partisan  strife. 
The  rapid  progress  of  the  Institution  thus  far,  in 
spite  of  its  various  and  grave  embarrassments,  has 
been  a  series  of  happy  surprises  to  many  who  have 
watched  it  with  interest.  We  at  least  will  not  doubt 
that  the  wisdom  and  the  generosity  of  the  State 
to  whose  usefulness  and  renown  it  has  contributed 
so  much,  even  in  its  brief  career,  will  make  its  future 
yet  richer  in  beneficence  than  its  past,  and  will 
remove  from  the  public  mind  every  lingering  doubt 
of  the  feasibility  of  building  up  a  State  University, 
which  shall  flourish  and  expand  as  long  as  the  State 
shall  prosper. 

If  the  admission  of  w^omen  to  this  University 
is  followed  by  no  undesirable  results  of  impor- 
tance, then  this  action  will,  in  my  opinion,  have 
a  more  marked  influence  on  the  colleges  and  pro- 
fessional schools  of  the  country  than  any  other 
event  in  the  history  of  the  Institution  has  ever  had. 
The  question  of  opening  the  halls  of  colleges  to  both 
sexes,  which  seems  to  be  practically  settled  in  the 
West,  is  attracting  deep  attention  in  the  East.  I 
thmk  I  do  not  err  in  saying  that  the  number  of 
academic  men  in  that  section  of  the  country  who 
are  in  favor  of  this  measure  is  rapidly  increasing. 
I  believe  that  when  it  can  be  said  with  confidence 

[12] 


INAUGURAL     ADDRESS,     1871 

that  the  University  of  Michigan  feels  itself  justified 
in  declaring  the  experiment  beyond  dispute  success- 
ful, the  doors  of  several  Eastern  colleges  will  open 
to  young  women.  And  it  is  not  extravagant  to 
believe  that  the  effect  may  be  felt  at  some  of  the 
great  European  schools.  The  relation  of  this  Uni- 
versity to  its  sister  institutions  of  high  grade  was 
therefore  never  so  important  as  it  is  to-day.  It 
becomes  us  to  remember  the  high  responsibility  which 
this  fact  lays  upon  us.     Noblesse  oblige. 

Honorable  as  has  been  the  history  of  the  Univer- 
sity, there  is  no  friend  of  it  who  does  not  wish  to 
see  it  doing  yet  higher  and  larger  work.  The  desire 
of  intelligent  men  throughout  the  country  for  a  few 
American  universities  which  shall  be  to  our  high 
schools  and  even  to  some  of  our  colleges  what  the 
universities  in  Europe  are  to  the  secondary  schools 
of  England,  the  lycees  of  France,  and  the  gymnasia 
of  Germany  is  so  strong  and  pervading  that  it  may 
be  regarded  as  a  prediction  of  the  upbuilding  of  such 
institutions  of  highest  grade.  If  the  saying  which 
Goethe  somewhere  gives  us,  "what  one  longs  for  in 
youth,  one  will  have  in  advanced  years,"  has  any 
foundation  of  truth  in  the  experience  of  Germans, 
it  has  yet  more  in  the  life  of  this  nation  whose  energy 
makes  a  wish  the  prophecy  of  attainment.  We 
must  have  these  universities  in  time.  But  they 
cannot  be  imported  ready-made.  They  cannot  be 
extemporized.  Like  governments,  they  must  grow. 
Most  of  them  will  be  developed  from  existing  insti- 

[13] 


SELECTED      ADDRESSES 


tutions.  Their  roots  will  be  found  in  the  colleges. 
It  would  not  be  difficult  to  indicate  which  colleges 
in  New  England  give  the  largest  promise  of  reaching 
the  true  university  standard  of  attainment. 

I  hope  it  may  not  be  deemed  improper  for  me  to 
say,  as  one  who  has  not  been  identified  with  this 
University  in  the  past,  that  either  the  State  or  the 
University  will  be  unworthy  the  vantage  ground 
which  has  been  gained  here  with  so  much  money 
and  toil,  if  this  is  not  the  first  of  the  Western 
schools  to  satisfy  the  demand  for  the  highest  order 
of  university  work.  Never  for  an  instant  should 
legislators  or  citizens  or  Regents  or  Faculty  or 
students  lose  sight  of  that  goal.  Till  that  end  is 
reached,  our  opportunities  are  not  seized.  Noth- 
ing less  than  that  must  content  us.  Precisely  how 
or  when  this  or  any  other  American  institution  is 
to  attain  this  development,  or  exactly  what  will 
be  the  organization  and  all  the  methods  of  the 
enlarged  universities,  we  may  not  now  be  able  to 
say.  We  Americans  must  feel  our  way  carefully. 
As  Lord  Bacon  says,  "we  must  use  Argus'  hun- 
dred eyes  before  we  raise  one  of  Briareus'  hundred 
hands."  The  work  is  one  which  requires  great 
wisdom  and  patience. 

Let  us  carefully  guard  against  one  peril.  While 
aiming  to  reach  university  work  at  last,  let  us  not 
underrate  or  neglect  the  strictly  collegiate  work  to 
which  the  academic  Department  must  for  some 
time    be    mainly    confined.     Excessive    haste    and 

[14] 


INAUGURAL     ADDRESS,     1871 

impatient  ambition  may  spoil  good  colleges  without 
making  even  poor  universities.  It  needs  still  how- 
ever to  be  remembered  in  this  country  that  calling 
an  institution  a  university  does  not  make  it  so. 
Neither  do  buildings,  however  imposing,  nor  endow- 
ments, however  splendid,  constitute  a  university. 
Nor  does  it  convert  a  college  into  a  university  to 
abolish  recitations  and  give  all  the  instruction  by 
lectures.  I  fear  that  the  public  do  not  sufficiently 
understand  that  the  essential  thing  in  a  university 
is  men,  both  in  the  students'  seats  and  in  the  pro- 
fessors' chairs.  Students  who  possess  sufficient 
maturity  of  body,  of  mind,  and  of  character,  and 
sufficient  intellectual  furniture  and  training,  to  carry 
on  with  earnestness  and  persistence  a  high  order  of 
work  till  they  can  reap 

"  A  harvest  of  wise  purposes 
Sown  in  the  fruitful  furrows  of  the  mind;" 

and  instructors  who  are  competent  to  guide  and  in- 
spire such  students,  these  make  a  university.  Wher- 
ever such  pupils  and  such  teachers  are  pursuing  the 
most  generous  culture  of  a  civilized  age,  there  are 
the  essential  constituents  of  a  university,  though,  as 
in  Bologna  in  the  thirteenth  century,  the  instruction 
is  given  in  private  houses  of  most  modest  structure, 
or  though  masters  and  disciples  dwell  in  hovels  of 
osier  and  thatch,  like  Abelard  and  his  followers  on 
the  wild  banks  of  the  Ardrissan.  The  youthful 
Plato  hanging  on  the  lips  of  the  barefooted  Socrates 
in  the  streets  of  Athens,  —  can  we  find  in  the  world 

[15] 


SELECTED      ADDRESSES 


a  picture  of  a  more  fruitful  university  culture  than 
that?  Give  us  Platos  as  professors  and  Aristotles 
as  pupils,  and  though  yonder  halls  be  razed  to  the 
ground  and  our  endowments  swallowed  up  by 
disaster,  we  can  still  have  in  this  quiet  inland  city 
a  University  which  shall  draw  the  studious  youth 
even  from  beyond  the  utmost  seas  and  shed  its 
benign  light  over  the  whole  world. 

How  many  of  our  well-meaning  countrymen  have 
given  their  tens  of  thousands  of  dollars  for  the 
material  homes  of  colleges  and  universities,  and  have 
made  no  adequate  provision  for  securing  the  most 
gifted  and  devoted  teachers?  Wlien  will  even  good 
men  learn  that  to  endow  a  university  with  brains  and 
heart,  and  not  alone  with  bricks  and  mortar,  is  the 
part  of  true  wisdom?  The  ideal  teacher  is  a  rare 
man,  for  whose  coming,  when  he  is  found,  the  Uni- 
versity and  the  State  should  give  thanks.  It  seems 
to  have  dawTied  but  recently  on  men's  minds  that 
teaching  in  the  college  or  university  is  a  special 
profession,  in  which  as  a  rule  a  man  can  no  more 
attain  high  usefulness  without  natural  aptitude  and 
appropriate  training  than  he  can  in  any  of  the  other 
learned  professions. 

A  man  may  have  eminent  success  as  a  lawyer 
or  a  clergyman  or  a  literary  writer  or  even  as  a 
school-teacher,  and  may  yet  prove  a  very  indiffer- 
ent professor.  If  he  is  to  succeed  in  university 
work,  he  must  have,  first,  in  the  very  make  of 
his   mind  and  soul,  the  divine  call   to  teach,  and 

[16] 


INAUGURAL     ADDRESS,     1871 

secondly,  he  should  have  a  large  general  culture 
and  a  thorough  special  training  in  his  own  depart- 
ment. Unless  he  has  the  first  of  these  qualifications, 
no  degree  of  excellence  in  the  second  will  crown  him 
with  success.  He  may  be  as  learned  as  Scaliger  or 
Erasmus,  but  if  he  has  not  in  him  the  power  of  kin- 
dling another  mind  with  the  fire  which  burns  in  his 
own,  if  he  cannot  bring  his  soul  into  such  close  and 
loving  contact  with  that  of  a  receptive  pupil  that 
the  latter  shall  be  stirred  by  his  impulses  and  fired 
with  his  enthusiasms  and  imbued  with  his  passionate 
love  of  the  truth  he  teaches,  he  has  not  in  the  highest 
sense  the  teaching  power.  The  best  part  of  the  help 
which  a  genuine  teacher  gives  to  his  pupil  often  con- 
sists not  in  the  formal  information  he  communicates 
on  this  or  that  topic,  but  in  the  magnetism,  the 
inspiration,  the  impartation  of  his  own  scholarly 
and  truth-loving  spirit.  To  this  enkindling  power 
he  should  add  a  kind  of  perpetual  youthfulness,  a 
freshness  of  spirit,  which  keeps  living  and  warm  his 
sympathies  with  the  young,  and  which  enables  him 
to  see  things  from  the  student's  point  of  view  as 
well  as  from  the  professor's.  He  must  also  possess 
the  ability  and  the  desire  to  be  ever  learning.  When 
a  man  stops  acquiring  knowledge,  it  is  time  for  him 
to  stop  teaching.  He  cannot  produce  attractive 
and  nutritious  food  for  his  pupils  by  incessantly 
threshing,  in  the  same  monotonous  way,  the  very 
same  straw  which  he  has  been  turning  over  and 
pounding  with  his  pedagogic  flail  for  an  indefinite 

[17] 


SELECTED      ADDRESSES 


period.  With  this  rare  combination  of  talent, 
scholarship,  and  temperament  he  must  also  unite  a 
pure  and  manly  character  and  a  certain  heroic 
disregard  of  the  high  pecuniary  remuneration  which 
other  callings  in  life  offer  to  men  like  him. 

Tell  me  if  men  who  have  wretchedly  failed  in 
other  professions  are  likely  to  have  sat  for  the  por- 
trait I  have  attempted  to  sketch  .f^  Tell  me  if  men 
who  are  worthy  of  this  vocation  of  the  teacher  do 
not  deserve  to  be  encouraged  and  honored  and 
rewarded  by  the  State  which  they  serve .^^  As  Mil- 
ton says,  after  completing  his  scheme  of  work  for 
the  school,  "Only  I  believe  that  this  is  not  a  bow 
for  every  man  to  shoot  in  that  counts  himself  a 
teacher,  but  will  require  sinews  almost  equal  to 
those  which  Homer  gave  Ulysses."  Happy  is  this 
University  that  it  has  had  and  still  has  so  many 
such  men  in  its  corps  of  teachers.  To  them  more 
than  to  any  peculiarity  of  your  methods  is  due 
whatever  large  and  lasting  influence  the  University 
has  exerted. 

Men  are  of  more  consequence  than  methods. 
Small  men  will  accomplish  little  with  the  best 
methods.  Men  of  large  scope  and  culture  will  do 
much  with  any  method  which  they  will  be  willing 
to  adopt.  There  is  much  discussion  just  now  con- 
cerning collegiate  methods,  and  it  bids  fair  to  be 
fruitful  of  good  results.  But  under  any  system  of 
college  life  which  is  likely  to  be  followed  in  this 
country,  the  best  work  will  probably  be  done  where 

[18] 


INAUGURAL     ADDRESS,     1871 

the  students  are  best  prepared  for  their  study  and 
the  professors  best  prepared  to  instruct.  As  the 
soul  of  a  nation  is  in  the  spirit  of  the  people  rather 
than  in  the  words  of  their  constitution,  so  the  soul 
of  a  university  is  in  the  men  who  compose  it  rather 
than  in  its  plan  of  organization.  If  it  is  to  have 
the  highest  success,  it  must  be  able  to  command 
the  services  of  the  choicest  teachers  and  to  remu- 
nerate them  so  that  they  can  give  their  best  vigor  to 
their  professorial  work. 

If  now  we  are  to  lift  the  grade  of  university  work, 
we  must  lift  the  grade  of  preparatory  work  and 
receive  our  students  only  at  a  more  advanced  stage 
of  training  than  they  at  present  reach  before  entering 
the  Freshman  class.  I  learn  from  the  interesting 
Report  of  President  Frieze  that  the  average  age  of 
the  students  who  are  admitted  here  is  very  nearly 
that  of  the  university  students  in  Germany.  Could 
they  thoroughly  accomplish  the  collegiate  work  of  the 
first  two  years  before  commencing  here,  we  might 
make  their  course  compare  favorably  with  that  of 
the  European  universities.  For  the  superiority 
which  the  graduates  from  the  German  gymnasia 
have  over  our  Junior  classes  in  the  knowledge  of  the 
classics  would  be,  I  think,  in  part  at  least  counter- 
balanced by  a  superiority  of  the  American  student 
over  the  German  in  a  larger  general  knowledge  of 
matters  beyond  the  range  of  his  school  studies,  and 
in  a  greater  readiness  in  the  practical  application  of 
his  learning. 

[19] 


S  i:  L  E  C  T  E  D      ADDRESSES 


Now  the  addition  of  the  studies  of  the  first  two 
years  to  the  preparatory  course  would  be  no  greater 
advance  upon  the  present  work  of  the  schools  than 
I  has  actually  been  achieved  since  the  beginning  of  the 
I  century.  Already  there  are  not  a  few  schools  in  the 
country  which  can  give  and  would  gladly  give  the  in- 
struction of  the  Freshman  year.  The  time  is  not 
distant  when  the  better  and  stronger  institutions  can 
safely  push  up  their  requirements  for  admission  to  the 
standard  now  reached  at  the  beginning  of  the  Sopho- 
more year,  and  I  am  confident  that  the  day  is  not  very 
remote  when  they  can  secure  yet  higher  attainments. 
The  teachers  of  academies  and  high  schools  are  gener- 
ally more  than  willing  to  do  their  part  in  accomplish- 
ing the  result,  since  the  character  of  their  work  and 
the  tone  of  their  schools  are  thereby  necessarily  raised. 
So  far  as  I  have  observed,  this  enlargement  of 
preparatory  work  is  easily  attainable,  and  is  even 
more  necessary  in  the  scientific  than  in  the  classical 
department  of  our  colleges.  The  mathematical  course, 
at  least  up  to  trigonometry,  the  elements  of  physiol- 
ogy, botany,  and  physics,  some  help  in  French,  and 
a  year's  study  or  more  of  Latin  may  now  be  furnished 
in  many  of  the  high  schools  of  New  England  and,  I 
doubt  not,  in  many  schools  in  the  West.  So  much, 
I  think,  it  would  be  very  desirable  to  secure  at  an 
early  day  from  those  who  pursue  scientific  courses. 
The  Latin  indeed  may  be  waived  for  a  time,  but  the 
best  scientific  schools  abroad  and  here  are  agreed 
that  it  is  very  helpful  to  their  pupils. 

[20] 


INAUGURAL     ADDRESS,      1871 

To  secure  this  elevation  of  our  work  there  must  be 
the  heartiest  co-operation  of  the  University  and  the 
schools.  It  would  have  been  a  happy  completion  of 
the  public  school  system  of  the  State  if  an  organic 
connection  like  that  between  the  German  Universi- 
ties and  the  gymnasia  had  been  established.  But 
there  may  be  such  a  virtual,  if  not  a  formal,  con- 
nection, and  to  accomplish  this  end  the  University 
should  spare  no  efiforts. 

It  must  be  confessed  that  generally  the  schools 
in  this  country  are  quite  as  ready  to  furnish  the 
advanced  instruction  as  colleges  are  to  insist  on  it 
with  rigor  as  the  indispensable  condition  of  admis- 
sion. The  courage  of  most  college  faculties  or 
corporations  wavers  when  a  considerable  number 
of  applicants  for  entrance  are  about  to  be  cut  off 
by  a  new  rule.  Of  course  good  sense  must  be 
used  in  deciding  how  fast  and  how  far  the  standard 
shall  be  raised.  But  the  courageous  course  here  as 
in  other  matters  is  often  the  best  rewarded.  As  a 
rule  the  colleges  whose  classes  are  increasing  most 
rapidly  are  those  whose  requirements  for  admission 
and  whose  scale  of  work  are  highest.  The  better 
and  more  aspiring  students  justly  conclude  that 
from  such  institutions  they  will  receive  the  most 
benefit.  Certain  it  is  that  the  best  interests  of  this 
University  and  of  good  learning  require  us  to  make 
increasing,  earnest,  and  judicious  efforts  to  push  the 
work  of  the  preparatory  schools  to  a  higher  and 
higher  plane. 

[21] 


SELECTED      ADDRESSES 


If  properly  supported,  the  University  can  by  wise 

and   persistent   endeavor   continually   approach   its 

ideal  of  giving  the  largest  general  culture  and  the 

most    thorough    and    extended    special    training    in 

technical   and   professional   study.     It   would   seem 

superfluous  to  remark  that,  at  least  throughout  the 

undergraduate  department,   the  instruction   should 

be   so   shaped    as   to   make   the   development   and 

discipline  of  the  faculties  the  primary  object,  were 

it  not  questioned  by  some  whether  it  is  expedient 

or  even  practicable  to  conduct  such  scientific  courses 

as  are  given  here  with  that  high  aim.     Now  without 

opening  the  vexed  question  of  the  relative  value  of 

the  culture  which  flow^s  from  the  humanities  and 

of  that  which  is  given  by  the  natural  sciences,  every 

one  must  admit  that  these  latter  studies  can  be  so 

pursued  as  to  give  admirable  training  to  the  faculties 

of  observation,   imagination,   and  reasoning.     It  is 

not  easy  to  see  how  they  can  be  efficiently  taught 

without    producing    that    result.     They    should    be 

taught  with  a  disciplinary  as  well  as  a  practical  aim, 

because  thus  will  the  most  valuable  practical  results 

be  achieved.     For  what  is  disciplinary  instruction 

in  a  science  except  instruction  in  the  processes  of 

observation,  induction,  and  deduction,  by  which  the 

principles  of  the  science  are  established  or  verified, 

and  such  instruction  as  shall  lead  the  student  to 

perform  those  processes  himself.'^     Shall  w^e  be  told 

that  the  student  will  be  best  or  more  rapidly  fitted 

for  the  practical  application  of  the  science  by  using 

[22] 


INAUGURAL     ADDRESS,     1871 

formulae  and  facts  as  his  tools,  without  attempting 
to  comprehend  the  underlying  principles? 

To  ask  the  question  in  this  presence  is  to  answer 
it,  and  I  appeal  to  any  teachers  of  natural  science  to 
tell  me  whether  the  clear  perception  by  the  pupil  of 
the  practical  bearing  of  his  study  upon  the  work 
of  his  life  ever  lessens  his  interest  in  the  fundamental 
principles  of  it,  or  weakens  his  susceptibility  to  the 
culture  to  be  derived  from  a  thorough  comprehen- 
sion of  those  principles?  Other  things  being  equal, 
will  not  those  persons  who  are  most  interested  in 
a  study  receive  the  best  culture  from  it?  Only  in 
this  possibility  of  imparting  genuine  culture  to 
students  by  the  use  of  the  mathematics  and  the 
natural  sciences  can  be  found  the  intellectual  justi- 
fication of  the  plan  pursued  here  of  uniting  classical 
and  scientific  students  in  the  same  classes.  If  the 
scientific  and  mathematical  training  of  any  candidate 
for  graduation  has  not  fitted  him  to  use  all  the 
faculties,  which  have  been  appealed  to  in  his  course, 
for  effective  service  outside  as  well  as  inside  of  his 
particular  profession,  then  it  has  failed  of  its  highest 
usefulness,  and  his  profession  will  be  exercised  by 
him  only  as  a  trade. 

Our  schools  of  law  and  medicine  have  contributed 
much  to  the  renown  of  the  University.  Some  of 
the  best  professional  schools  in  the  country  are,  like 
the  colleges,  trying  important  experiments  in  courses 
and  methods  of  instruction,  and  these  will  receive 
the  attention  of  our  vigilant  Faculties.     It  is  uni- 

[23] 


SELECTED      ADDRESSES 


versally  confessed,  I  believe,  that  it  would  be  ad- 
vantageous to  secure  some  larger  qualifications  in 
those  who  are  allowed  to  matriculate  in  the  American 
schools  than  are  now  required  of  them.  At  present 
the  obstacles  to  such  a  reform  seem  to  be  very  grave. 
But  we  must  hold  ourselves  ever  ready  to  take  such 
action  in  common  with  other  guides  of  professional 
learning  as  is  worthy  of  our  position  and  history. 

It  is  to  be  hoped  that  we  may  soon  induce  a 
considerable  number  of  young  men  to  pursue  what 
may  be  termed  graduate  work  in  other  departments 
besides  those  of  law  and  medicine.  The  increasing 
desire  for  large  attainments  in  linguistic  studies  and 
in  the  natural  sciences,  the  pressing  necessity  of 
training  a  numerous  class  for  the  chairs  of  instruc- 
tors in  our  higher  schools  and  colleges,  the  facilities 
which  we  have  for  beginning  this  work  of  advanced 
instruction,  and  the  example  of  the  leading  univer- 
sities in  the  Eastern  States  are  so  many  arguments 
in  favor  of  trying  this  important  step  in  genuine 
university  work,  whenever  students  are  ready  to 
receive  this  help  at  our  hands. 

There  are  other  studies  in  which  our  graduates 
may  perhaps  yet  be  led  to  labor  for  some  time.  For 
instance,  the  increasing  number  of  alumni  who  are 
entering  the  important  profession  of  journalism, 
which  is  constantly  drawing  men  of  higher  talent  and 
attainments  to  its  service,  and  which  is  certainly 
second  in  influence  to  none  of  the  so-called  learned 
professions,  might  profitably  pursue  special  studies 

[24] 


INAUGURAL     ADDRESS,      1871 

in  history,  literature,  political  economy,  political 
philosophy,  and  international  law.  While  it  may 
perhaps  be  as  truly  said  of  the  great  editor  as  of 
the  great  poet,  nascitur,  non  Jit,  still  the  truth  should 
be  recognized  both  by  students  and  by  universities 
that  most  valuable  preliminary  training  may  be  fur- 
nished for  the  duties  of  the  journalistic  profession. 

Many,  who  are  best  fitted  to  judge  of  the  intellec- 
tual needs  of  our  country,  are  so  deeply  impressed 
with  the  importance  of  securing  advanced  instruc- 
tion for  our  most  promising  students  that  they  are 
recommending  men  of  generosity  to  endow  fellow- 
ships, which  shall  enable  a  certain  number  of  picked 
scholars  to  prolong  their  course  of  study.  This  is  a 
kind  of  benefaction  which  may  well  claim  the  atten- 
tion of  those  who  wish  to  devise  liberal  things  for 
the  young  men  and  the  young  women  of  the  West. 
Some  of  the  Eastern  colleges  have  already  received 
such  an  accession  to  their  resources  and  are  beginning 
to  perceive  the  beneficent  results. 

May  we  not  indulge  the  hope  that  not  only  in 
this  way,  but  in  various  ways,  the  University  may 
profit  by  the  generosity  of  her  sons  and  of  many  other 
friends  of  sound  learning.?  She  is,  and  perhaps 
must  be,  dependent  on  the  State  for  her  chief  help. 
But  now  that  for  more  than  a  score  of  years  she  has 
been  sending  forth  her  sons  into  all  honorable  callings 
and  professions,  may  she  not  reasonably  expect  that 
those  who  have  been  crowned  with  prosperity  will 
rejoice  to  testify  their  indebtedness  to  her  by  in- 

[25] 


Sf^LECTED      ADDRESSES 


creasing  her  power  and  usefulness?  Many  colleges 
find  this  grateful  and  active  help  of  their  alunmi  a 
perennial  source  of  refreshing  and  strength. 

The  Library,  the  Museum  of  Art,  and  the  Observ- 
atory already  bear  witness  to  the  deep  interest  of 
large-hearted  men  in  this  University.  For  some 
years  successive  graduating  classes  have  been  leav- 
ing behind  them  tokens  of  their  generous  and  filial 
love  for  the  University,  and  to  my  mind  there  is  and 
can  be  no  more  convincing  proof  of  the  healthy 
life  of  the  Institution.  The  benediction  which  her 
parting  sons  pronounce  is  at  once  a  benison  and  a 
prevalent  prayer  for  future  blessings.  These  gifts 
of  our  young  friends,  we  may  well  believe,  are  the 
first-fruits  of  that  harvest  with  which  the  University 
shall  be  enriched  by  private  munificence.  Let  it 
not  be  thought  that  the  aid  furnished  by  the  State 
leaves  no  room  for  such  munificence.  Any  one 
familiar  with  the  University  can  readily  suggest 
uses  to  which  benefactions  may  be  wisely  devoted. 
Endowments  of  professorships,  a  gj^mnasium,  which 
shall  furnish  opportunities  for  physical  training,  a 
building  suited  to  accommodate  the  Library  and 
the  Art  collections,  a  Laboratory  with  the  needed 
apparatus  for  experimental  instruction  in  physics, 
these,  the  most  casual  observer  would  say,  are  much 
to  be  desired. 

There  is  no  more  creditable  chapter  in  American 
annals  than  that  which  records  the  liberality  of  our 
citizens  to  our  institutions  of  learning.     Never  before 

[26] 


INAUGURAL     ADDRESS,     1871 

has  that  HberaHty  been  so  marked  as  during  the  last 
ten  years.  It  may  now  be  accepted  as  a  settled 
principle  in  American  life  that  no  college  of  estab- 
lished strength  and  reputation,  which  is  so  con- 
ducted as  to  deserve  to  have  its  life  continued, 
shall  long  lack  for  the  supply  of  its  substantial 
wants.  But  it  is  of  vital  consequence  that  this  Uni- 
versity, or  any  one  which  deserves  the  public  favor, 
should  be  constantly  improving  in  seme  respect. 
If  it  is  resting  on  its  laurels,  if  it  is  sitting  down 
satisfied  with  its  past  achievements,  if  it  is  not 
incessantly  asking  "how  can  I  do  more  or  better 
work,"  it  does  not  deserve  to  be  favored  or  helped. 
It  is  in  danger  of  dying  of  dry-rot.  It  is  not  well 
to  have  spasmodic  periods  of  advance  followed  by 
decline.  Every  year  should  bring  some  gain.  In 
this  day  of  unparalleled  activity  in  college  life,  the 
institution  which  is  not  steadily  advancing  is  cer- 
tainly falling  behind. 

An  argument  for  generous  and  increasing  aid  to 
the  stronger  colleges  is  found  in  one  embarrassment 
to  which  they  are  just  now  more  subjected  than  the 
weaker  ones.  This  embarrassment  consists  in  the 
great  increase  of  students,  whose  numbers  often  mul- 
tiply more  rapidly  than  the  resources  of  the  colleges. 
The  tendency  to  centralization  which  is  seen  in  many 
characteristics  of  American  life  is  notably  prominent 
in  the  colleges.  Students  are  more  and  more  inclined 
to  resort  to  the  institutions  which  have  large  classes 
and  resources.     This  subjects  such  colleges  and  uni- 

[27] 


SELECTED      ADDRESSES 


versities  to  a  new  stimulus,  but  also  to  new  responsi- 
bilities, often  to  new  embarrassments.  The  stimulus 
must  incite  them  to  shoulder  the  responsibilities  with 
courage  and  to  push  through  or  over  all  the  obstacles. 
No  better  illustration  of  such  action  could  be  found 
than  is  afforded  by  the  history  of  this  University 
during  its  years  of  wonderful  growth.  With  heroic 
endeavor  and  untiring  patience  its  officers  have  met 
the  rapidly  increasing  demand  upon  them  with  a 
success  Vv^hich  even  they  would  not  have  dared  to 
predict.  Still  the  number  of  applicants  for  admission 
swells  year  by  year,  and  no  reason  appears  why  it 
may  not  continue  to  increase  so  long  as  the  University 
continues  to  multiply  its  attractions  and  enlarge  its 
facilities  for  instruction. 

This  fact  should  not  only  spur  the  instructors  to 
their  best  efforts,  but  also  should  move  the  patrons 
of  the  University  to  give  us  the  means  with  which 
to  discharge  the  duty  that  the  very  prominence  of 
the  University  lays  upon  us.  No  one  would  wish 
us  to  fall  back  to  the  second  rank  of  higher  schools. 
No  one  ought  to  be  satisfied  with  our  remaining  where 
we  are.  The  steady  enlargement  and  improvement 
of  the  work  of  a  university  like  this  means  constant 
and  important  increase  of  resources. 

This  is  a  fact  which  we  may  ask  the  State  and  all 
friends  of  the  University  to  bear  ever  in  mind.  The 
State  as  the  great  patron  and  protector  of  the 
University  has  a  right  to  ask  that  it  do  the  best  work 
possible  with  the  means  at  its  command,  that  with 

[28] 


INAUGURAL     ADDRESS,     1871 

enlarged  resources  its  activity  and  usefulness  be 
increased,  that  it  do  not  become  the  refuge  of 
dawdling  dilettanti  or  of  curious  pedants,  either  as 
students  or  teachers, | that  the  Christian  spirit,  which; 
pervades  the  laws,  the  customs,  and  the  life  of  the  ; 
State,  shall  shape  and  color  the  life  of  the  University,  j 
that  a  lofty,  earnest,  but  catholic  and  unsectarian 
Christian  tone  shall  characterize  the  culture  which 
is  here  imparted. ;  It  may  fairly  demand  that  the 
University  do  not,  as  some  institutions  have  done, 
when  they  have  waxed  strong  and  rich,  shut  itself 
off  from  living  sympathy  and  contact  with  the  great 
body  of  honest,  toiling  men  who  help  to  sustain  it, 
but  that  it  show  in  the  lives  of  its  graduates  how  its 
culture  enriches  and  strengthens  and  adorns  the 
whole  life  of  the  State,  that  it  make  it  plainly  mani- 
fest to  each  intelligent  citizen  that  every  appropria- 
tion to  the  University  sows  seeds  in  the  most  fruitful 
of  all  soils,  and  swells  that  rich  harvest  of  intellectual 
force  and  manly  character  which  is  the  greatest 
treasure  and  highest  glory  of  any  commonwealth.  ' 
The  right  of  the  State  to  ask  all  this  implies  also 
the  right  of  the  University  to  expect  that  the  State 
will  furnish  the  most  efficient  aid  which  it  can  afford. 
Nor  should  this  aid  be  regarded  as  a  charity,  any 
more  than  the  appropriations  for  public  schools  or 
for  the  support  of  the  judiciary.  If  the  State  has 
deemed  it  wise  to  found  and  aid  the  University,  it  is 
the  part  of  common  prudence  and  good  sense  for  the 
State  to  sustain  it  generously  and  to  give  it  the 

[29] 


SELECTED      ADDRESSES 


greatest  practicable  efficiency.  A  crippled  insti- 
tution, which  can  only  half  do  its  work,  is  hardly 
worth  supporting  at  all.  In  maintaining  schools 
and  colleges  liberality  is  true  economy. 

Again,  the  University  cannot  do  its  work  with  the 
highest  success  unless  it  have  a  certain  degree  of 
independence  and  self-control.  It  has  therefore  a 
right  to  expect  that  this  privilege  will  be  conceded  to 
it.  Written  law  or  the  unwritten  law  of  common 
consent  should  shield  it  from  the  sudden  outbursts 
of  partisan  passion  and  from  the  assaults  of  designing 
men.  It  must  be  able  to  have  some  fixed  and  definite 
plan  and  purpose  running  on  through  a  series  of 
years.  It  must  have  stability  of  character  and  life. 
The  general  nature  and  the  details  of  its  work  should 
be  determined  by  those  who  are  charged  with  the 
immediate  responsibility  of  administering  its  affairs. 
No  other  men  in  the  whole  State  can  have  so  deep 
a  personal  interest  in  securing  its  prosperity  as  the 
Regents  and  the  Faculty.  The  brilliant  success 
which  they  have  achieved  for  it  in  the  past  justifies 
the  belief  that  the  direction  of  its  policy  cannot  be 
confided  to  better  hands  than  theirs. 

No  undue  restraints  should  be  laid  upon  the  intel- 
lectual freedom  of  the  teachers.  No  man  worthy  to 
hold  a  chair  here  will  work  in  fetters.  In  choosing 
members  of  the  Faculty  the  greatest  care  should  be 
taken  to  secure  gifted,  earnest,  rev^erent  men,  whose 
mental  and  moral  qualities  will  fit  them  to  prepare 
their  pupils  for  manly  and  womanly  work  in  pro- 

[30] 


INAUGURAL  ADDRESS,  1871 

moting  our  Christian  civilization.  But  never  insist 
on  their  pronouncing  the  shibboleths  of  sect  or  party. 
So  only  can  we  train  a  generation  of  students  to 
catholic,  candid,  truth-loving  habits  of  mind  and 
tempers  of  heart. 

The  State  and  the  University  should  feel  that  their 
interests  are  identical.  The  prosperity  of  the  Uni- 
versity is  bound  up  in  that  of  the  State.  Michigan 
cannot  grow  stronger,  wiser,  and  happier  without 
strengthening  her  principal  seat  of  learning.  The 
University  is  therefore  constrained  by  every  motive 
of  enlightened  self-regard,  as  well  as  by  her  unques- 
tioned loyalty,  to  remain  true  to  the  interests  of  the 
State. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  State  can  hardly  over- 
estimate her  indebtedness  to  the  University.  This 
school  has  shed  its  blessings  upon  all  classes  and 
professions  of  men.  ^  It  has  given  the  best  culture  of 
the  times  to  the  poOr  as  well  as  to  the  rich.  In  this 
respect  its  bounty  has  been  even  more  marked  than 
that  of  the  common  school.  For  hardly  any  boy  is 
so  poor  that  he  might  not,  if  necessary,  obtain  at 
his  own  cost  the  rudiments  of  education.  But  how 
few  of  our  young  men  who  have,  almost  without 
price,  enjoyed  the  benefits  of  the  ample  resources 
of  this  University  could  possibly  have  paid  the 
actual  cost  of  their  collegiate  education.  A  great 
University  like  this  is  thus  in  one  sense  the  most 
democratic  of  all  institutions  and  so  best  deserving 
of  the  support  of  the  State.     This  school  has  flooded 

[31] 


SELECTED      ADDRESSES 


with  its  light  and  strengthened  with  its  strength  all 
the  subordinate  schools.  It  has  helped  to  lift  the 
whole  system  of  education  in  the  State  through  ths 
agency  of  the  parents,  teachers,  and  superintendents, 
who  have  carried  from  its  halls  lofty  ideals  of  in- 
tellectual work.  It  has  won  for  the  State  an  enviable 
renow^n  among  all  friends  of  learning  in  this  land, 
and  has  caused  the  name  of  Michigan  to  be  spoken 
with  gratifying  praise  beyond  the  Atlantic. 

All  history  attests  that  there  is  no  instrumentality 
by  which  modern  nations  have  done  so  much  to  in- 
crease their  strength  and  happiness,  to  perpetuate 
the  influence  of  their  ideas,  to  win  the  honor  and 
gratitude  of  mankind,  as  by  their  great  schools 
of  learning.  Bologna,  Salerno,  and  Padua  thus 
stretched  the  sway  of  Italy  far  into  transalpine 
lands.  Paris  has  for  centuries  been  the  intellectual 
exchange  of  Europe.  Oxford  and  Cambridge  have 
helped  to  mould  the  lives  and  daily  thought  of  every 
one  of  us.  The  sceptre  of  Berlin  and  of  Bonn  rules 
over  a  territory  a  hundred -fold  wider  than  that  which 
Bismarck  has  laid  at  the  feet  of  his  Imperial  master. 
Dynasties  come  and  go,  Bourbons,  Napoleons,  Tu- 
dors,  Hohenstaufens  appear  and  disappear,  kingdoms 
and  States  rise  and  fall,  but  amid  all  the  vicissitudes 
of  earthly  affairs  the  great  universities  are  the  most 
vital  and  enduring  of  all  human  institutions. 

This  University  is  yet  comparatively  in  its  infancy. 
Citizens  of  Michigan,  you  who  are  now  building  its 
walls  are  really  laying  foundations.     Let  no  penny- 

[32] 


INAUGURAL     ADDRESS,      1871 

wise  economy  tempt  you  to  use  untempered  mortar. 
Divine  Providence  has  opened  to  you  a  golden  oppor- 
tunity, such  as  comes  not  often  in  the  history  of  a 
State.  Seize  upon  it  with  thanksgiving.  Show  by 
the  largeness  of  your  work  that  you  appreciate  the 
call,  and  the  favor  of  Heaven  shall  rest  upon  you  and 
generations  shall  rise  up  to  call  you  blessed. 


[33] 


II 


THE   HIGHER  EDUCATION 

A   PLEA   FOR   MAKING   IT   ACCESSIBLE 
TO   ALL 


JUNE  26,   1879 

AN  ADDRESS  DELIVERED  AT  THE  ANNUAL 

COMMENCEMENT  OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY  OF 

MICHIGAN 


II 


THE  HIGHER   EDUCATION:    A   PLEA   FOR 
MAKING  IT  ACCESSIBLE  TO  ALL 

Until  within  a  few  days  we  have  cherished  the 
hope  of  listening  at  this  hour  to  a  distinguished 
scholar  and  orator  from  a  sister  State. "^  But,  un- 
happily, our  hope  has  been  disappointed.  In  this 
exigency  the  kindly  urgency  of  my  associates  in  the 
University  Senate  has  constrained  me  very  unwill- 
ingly and  after  hurried  preparation  to  offer  you  some 
thoughts  which,  I  trust,  may  be  found  not  unfitting 
the  occasion. 

No  one  here  can  regret  more  profoundly  than  I 
the  necessity  which  calls  you  to  listen  to  a  voice  so 
familiar  as  mine  and  so  suggestive,  I  fear,  to  my 
younger  friends,  of  the  recitation  room  and  the  daily 
routine  of  college  life,  rather  than  of  the  joys,  the 
enthusiasms,  the  inspirations  which  this  great  festal 
day  of  the  University  should  awaken  in  all  hearts. 
Fortunately  the  success  of  this  occasion  does  not 
depend  on  me.  It  is  already  assured  in  the  spectacle, 
which  has  so  perennial  an  interest,  of  a  goodly 
company  of  young  men  and  young  women  appearing 
upon  this  stage  to  receive  their  testimonials  of  work 
faithfully  accomplished,  and  turning  away  to  confront 

*  James  A.  Garfield,  afterwards  President. 

[37] 

8589G 


SELECTED      ADDRESSES 


the  stern  duties  of  life,  in  this  vast  concourse  of 
alumni  and  other  friends  of  the  University,  and  in 
the  devotion  to  the  dear  mother  of  her  children, 
who  gather  from  distant  homes  under  her  ample  roof- 
tree,  while  their  hearts  run  together  in  the  joy  of  a 
common  love  to  her. 

As  we  assemble  on  these  high  days  at  these  shrines 
of  learning,  we  instinctively  call  to  mind  those  noble 
and  far-sighted  statesmen  to  whose  wise  and  generous 
forethought  the  greatness  and  the  very  existence 
of  this  Institution  are  due.  It  should  be  one  of  our 
sacred  duties,  as  well  as  delights,  to  imbue  ourselves 
with  the  spirit  in  which  they  wrought  for  the  founding 
of  a  free  school  of  letters,  science,  and  arts. 

The  story  of  this  work  is  so  familiar  that  I  need 
not  repeat  it  in  detail.  But  let  us  keep  clearly 
before  us  the  important  fact  that  the  fathers  who 
drafted  and  adopted  that  great  charter  of  liberty  and 
learning  for  the  Northwest,  the  Ordinance  of  1787, 
in  which  they  declared  that  "schools  and  the  means 
of  education  should  forever  be  encouraged,"  carried, 
in  their  conception  of  a  State,  a  distinct  idea  of  a 
richly  endowed  university  as  a  part  of  its  furniture 
and  its  life.  They  and  their  successors  in  Congress 
provided  for  the  support  of  such  institutions  in  the 
nascent  States  of  this  region  with  what  was  then  so 
munificent  generosity  that  clearly  they  expected  the 
higher  education  would  be  within  the  easy  reach 
of  all.  It  may  well  be  that  even  in  their  brightest 
dreams  of  the  future  of  the  territory  which  they 

[38] 


THE     HIGHER     EDUCATION 


were  consecrating  to  freedom,  to  religion,  and  to 
intelligence,  they  did  not  see  that  in  less  than  a 
century,  as  the  fruitage  of  their  sowing,  in  all  these 
Northwestern  States  schools  and  colleges  should 
spring  up  like  the  stars  in  the  sky  for  number.  Still 
less,  perhaps,  did  they  imagine  that  before  the  cen- 
tennial celebration  of  the  birth  of  the  nation  there 
should  arise  and  flourish  in  this  State  of  Michigan, 
then  an  almost  untrodden  wilderness,  fringed  by  a 
few  weak  settlements  on  the  river  and  the  lakes, 
a  university  which  should  surpass  in  the  number 
of  its  students  and  teachers,  the  amplitude  of  its 
endowments  and  the  wide  reach  of  its  influence,  the 
Harvard,  the  Yale,  the  Princeton,  and  the  William 
and  Mary  of  their  day,  and  should  win  an  honorable 
name  on  every  continent  of  the  globe.  Yet  this 
possibility,  now  become  fact,  lay  coiled  as  a  germ  in 
the  Ordinance  of  1787,  that  gentis  cunahula  nostrae. 
The  wise  men  who  shaped  the  organization  of  this 
State  steadily  cherished  the  idea  which  was  inherited 
from  the  fathers,  of  building  a  university  in  which 
their  children,  whether  poor  or  rich,  could  obtain  the 
higher  culture  of  their  minds.  The  plan  of  a  univer- 
sity marked  out  by  the  territorial  government  in  1817 
was  one  which  for  breadth  and  completeness  of  con- 
ception we  can  even  now  only  admire.  The  language 
of  the  Constitution  of  1835  shows  that  its  framers  had 
the  broadest  and  most  generous  views  of  public  provi- 
sion for  the  support  of  libraries,  education,  including 
higher  education,  and  especially  of  the  University. 

[39] 


SELECTED      ADDRESSES 


We  may  say,  therefore,  with  strictest  truth,  that 
this  idea  of  large  and  Hberal  supply  of  facilities  not 
only  for  common  school  training,  but  also  for  uni- 
versity education,  was  inwrought  into  the  very 
conception  of  the  State  of  Michigan.  It  has  from 
the  beginning  formed  a  part  of  the  life  of  the  State. 
It  has  never  been  lost,  but  has  grown  with  the  growth 
of  the  State,  and  strengthened  with  its  strength. 
And  it  has,  I  believe,  never  had  so  firm  a  hold  upon 
the  State  as  it  has  to-day. 

In  the  light  of  accomplished  results,  when  we 
consider  how  little  the  total  cost  of  the  University 
has  been  to  the  State,  less  than  half  a  million  of 
dollars,  not  more  in  fact  than  these  buildings  and 
grounds  and  museums  and  libraries  are  worth;  when 
we  remember  that  it  has  sent  forth  fifty -seven  hun- 
dred graduates,  most  of  them  persons  of  humble 
means,  equipped  for  duty  in  all  worthy  callings  of 
life;  that  the  names  and  the  works  of  its  Professors 
are  known  and  respected  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlan- 
tic; that  it  is  recognized,  we  may  modestly  say,  as 
taking  rank  with  the  best  universities  in  the  land, 
and  that  it  has  helped  in  no  small  degree  to  make 
the  name  of  Michigan  known  wherever  the  cultiva- 
tion of  science  and  letters  is  respected,  may  we 
not  gratefully  and  truly  declare  that  the  fathers, 
whose  legislation  made  this  career  of  the  Univer- 
sity possible,  had  an  exalted  and  statesmanlike 
conception  of  the  duty  of  the  State  to  the  higher 
education  "^ 

[40] 


THE     HIGHER     EDUCATION 


I  think,  therefore,  I  shall  be  acting  in  completest 
harmony  with  the  true  spirit  of  Michigan  if  I  employ 
the  hour  assigned  me  this  morning  in  enforcing  and 
illustrating  this  truth: 

That  it  is  of  vital  importance,  especially  in  a  republic, 
that  the  higher  education,  as  well  as  common  school 
education,  be  accessible  to  the  poor  as  well  as  to  the  rich. 

Notice  that  this  implies  that  either  through 
public  or  private  endowment  the  higher  education 
shall  be  furnished  at  less  than  its  cost.  From  time 
to  time  there  appear  some  impracticable  theorizers 
—  and  they  are  too  numerous  just  now  —  who  lift 
up  their  voices  and  invoke  the  economic  laws  of 
supply  and  demand  and  the  laissez  alter  doctrine  in 
condemnation  of  endowments  of  schools  of  learning. 
But  if  colleges  and  universities  were  required  to 
exact  of  students  fees  which  should  fully  repay  the 
cost  of  instruction,  the  poor  must,  with  few  excep- 
tions, be  shut  out  from  them.  Should  we  say  nothing 
of  the  interest  on  the  capital  represented  in  the  real 
property  of  the  average  American  college,  it  would 
cost  each  student  from  one  hundred  to  two  hundred 
dollars  a  year  more  than  is  now  paid  if  the  actual 
cost  of  the  instruction  were  returned  to  the  treasury 
of  the  institution.  If  the  interest  on  the  amount 
invested  in  the  buildings,  grounds,  libraries,  and 
collections  were  to  be  made  good  by  the  fees  for 
tuition,  the  annual  cost  to  each  student  would 
probably  be  increased  by  from  four  hundred  to  six 
hundred  dollars. 

[41] 


SELECTED      ADDRESSES 


Obviously  the  great  mass  of  the  men  now  in  the 
colleges  would  be  excluded.  The  higher  education 
would  be,  as  a  rule,  within  reach  of  the  rich  alone. 
As  it  is,  even  now  many  are  able  to  complete  their 
course  only  by  self-denial  and  by  labors  which  are 
really  heroic.  Now,  what  I  affirm  is  that  any 
arrangement  that  should  leave  the  higher  education 
accessible  to  the  rich  alone  would  be  in  the  highest 
degree  unwise.  In  support  of  this  statement  I  have 
to  say: 

l./^It  is  in  itself  fitting,  and,  in  a  certain  sense,  it 
is  due  to  children  as  human  beings,  that  the  poorest 
child  should  have  proper  facilities  for  obtaining  by 
reasonable  effort  the  best  development  of  his  talent 
and  character,  j  I  think  I  may  appeal  to  the  common 
sense  and  the  general  feeling  of  civilized  men  in 
recognition  of  this  truth.  One  of  the  highest  ends 
of  society  is  to  help  men  make  the  most  of  them- 
selves. True,  as  I  shall  soon  show,  this  is  partly 
because  it  is  for  the  interest  of  all,  of  society  at  large. 
But  beyond  that  we  instinctively  recognize  it  as  a 
duty  to  do  what  we  can,  both  individually  and 
through  the  organized  action  of  society,  to  open  to 
every  child  —  and  for  the  child's  own  sake  —  a 
fair  chance  for  the  best  start  in  life  for  which  his 
talent  fits  him.  I  know  that  we  often  justify  our 
providing  a  free  common  school  education  simply 
by  showing  the  necessity  of  such  an  education  as  a 
preparation  for  citizenship.  But  I  believe  that  down 
in  our  hearts  there  is  a  profound  satisfaction,  and 

[42] 


THE     HIGHER     EDUCATION 


often  an  impelling  motive  to  our  action,  in  the  con- 
viction that  we  are  doing  simply  what  is  just,  what  is 
due  to  every  child  as  a  human  being,  in  giving  him 
an  opportunity  to  kindle  into  a  flame  any  divine 
spark  of  intelligence  within  him.  Is  it  too  much 
to  say  that  the  infant  born  into  a  civilized  and 
Christian  society  has  a  right  to  claim  something  more 
than  a  bare  possibility  —  has  a  right  to  claim  a 
tolerable  probability  of  such  moral  and  intellectual 
surroundings  as  shall  make  education  and  character 
accessible  to  him,  if  he  has  a  fair  amount  of  talent, 
self-denial,  and  energy?  For  the  moment  I  am  not 
considering  whether  his  claim  should  be  met  by 
legislation  or  by  voluntary  action.  But  that  it 
should  be  met  by  society  in  some  way,  I  think,  will 
be  generally  conceded. 

What  more  touching  spectacle  is  there  than  that 
of  an  ingenuous  and  high-spirited  youth,  consumed 
with  an  insatiable  thirst  for  knowledge,  endowed 
with  faculties  that  might  make  him  the  peer  of  the 
greatest,  yet  chained  by  the  heavy  hand  of  poverty 
through  all  his  best  years  to  the  foot  of  the  ladder, 
on  which  his  aspiring  soul  would,  if  unfettered,  so 
easily  and  so  joyously  have  mounted  to  the  stars. 
His  indomitable  energy  may  enable  him  at  last, 
after  years  of  heavy  struggle,  to  attain  a  lofty  height. 
But  would  it  not  be  a  blessed  act,  would  it  not  be  a 
just  and  wise  and  righteous  act,  to  relieve  him  of 
so  much  of  the  struggle  as  is  not  needful  for  the 
discipline  of  his  soul,  and  to  secure  to  him  as  well  as 

[43] 


SELECTED      ADDRESSES 


to  society  years  of  his  most  fruitful  work?  As  the 
magnet  draws  the  particles  of  steel  from  the  dust 
and  lifts  them  into  view,  so  the  common  school 
system,  stretching  out  its  sensitive  and  generous 
hands  to  every  child  in  this  commonwealth,  lifts 
the  exceptionally  gifted  into  notice,  makes  him  and 
his  friends  cognizant  of  his  power  and  his  promise, 
kindles  in  him  the  flame  of  a  noble  ambition  for  learn- 
ing, and  compels  us  to  recognize  the  duty  of  society 
to  smooth  the  way  from  the  cradle  of  talent  in  the 
humblest  log  hut  to  the  halls  of  the  highest  learning. 
To  stimulate  to  the  utmost  the  ambition  of  these 
pupils  by  your  schools,  to  set  their  minds  on  fire  with 
this  unquenchable  desire  for  ampler  culture,  and 
yet  to  make  that  culture  practically  inaccessible, 
to  slam  the  door  of  the  college  in  the  face  of  every 
one  who  is  poor,  were  illogical  and  cruel  and  unworthy 
your  boasted  civilization. 

2.  But  we  need  to  make  the  higher  education 
accessible  to  the  poor,  not  merely  on  account  of  the 
poor  and  gifted  scholars  themselves,  but  also  because 
this  is  best  for  society.  We  need  all  the  intelligence, 
all  the  trained  minds  we  can  have.  There  is  never 
a  surplus  of  wisdom  and  true  learning.  There  is 
often  a  surplus  of  pedantry.  There  is  often  an  excess 
of  false  pride  on  the  part  of  those  who  have  not 
talent  enough  to  shine  in  purely  intellectual  pur- 
suits, and  who  foolishly  hold  themselves  above  the 
only  pursuits  for  which,  with  all  their  advantages 
of    education,   their  moderate   mental   endowments 

[44  J 


THE     HIGHER     EDUCATION 


fit  them.  But  these  are  merely  incidental  evils 
belonging  to  any  system  of  higher  education.  Of 
strong,  well-balanced,  well-furnished  minds  we  can- 
not have  too  many.  They  are  the  true  riches  of 
a  nation.  Without  them  the  mines  of  El  Dorado 
cannot  make  a  people  rich  or  strong.  With  them 
the  dwellers  on  a  desert  may  become  prosperous 
and  invincible. 

Now,  God  bestows  talent  with  impartial  hand 
equally  on  the  rich  and  the  poor.  He  sows  the  seeds 
of  genius  in  what  might  seem  the  unlikeliest  spots. 
He  often  places  the  choicest  jewels  in  the  humblest 
settings.  His  rarest  gifts  of  mind  are  dropped  in 
the  obscurest  homes.  As  the  son  of  Sirach  has  told 
us,  "Wisdom  lifteth  up  the  head  of  him  that  is  of 
low  degree,  and  maketh  him  to  sit  among  great 
men."  It  was  on  an  Ayrshire  peasant  that  Heaven 
bestowed  the  power  of  the  sweetest  song  that  ever 
rose  on  the  Scottish  hills.  It  was  to  the  blacksmith's 
son,  the  bookbinder's  apprentice,  Faraday,  that  the 
electric  currents,  in  their  rapid  and  unseen  flight, 
paused  to  reveal  their  secrets.  It  was  given  to  a 
colliery  fireman  to  harness  steam  to  our  chariots 
and  bear  us  as  on  the  wings  of  the  wind  across  the 
continent,  and  so  to  revolutionize  the  commercial 
methods  of  the  world.  It  was  on  a  man  whose 
origin  is  so  obscure  that  his  parentage  can  scarcely 
be  traced  that  God  laid  the  responsibility  and  con- 
ferred the  power  of  leading  us  out  of  the  disgrace 
of  slavery  and  the  blackness  of  darkness  of  civil  war 

[45] 


SELECTED      ADDRESSES 


into  the  sweet  light  of  true  freedom  and  welcome 
peace.  It  is  to  a  Michigan  telegraph  boy  that  God 
lends  so  divine  a  vision  that  he  sees  and  measures 
and  harnesses  to  his  service  the  subtlest  forces  of 
nature.  The  scientific  savans  of  the  world  look  on 
in  wonder  as  at  the  command  of  Edison  dumb 
matter  speaks,  the  word  which  died  away  upon  the 
empty  air  weeks  ago  gains  a  resurrection  and  falls 
again  upon  our  ear  with  a  living  voice.  As  distant 
Arcturus,  more  than  one  million  and  six  hundred 
thousand  times  as  far  away  from  us  as  our  sun, 
reports  visibly  to  him  the  almost  infinitesimal  quan- 
tity of  heat  which  its  pencil  of  light,  after  travelling 
its  weary  journey  of  more  than  five  and  twenty 
years,  has  brought  with  it  to  earth,  we  ask  in  amaze- 
ment what  revelation  is  next  to  be  made  through 
this  interpreter,  for  whom  nature  seems  to  have 
lost  her  wonted  coyness  and  secrecy. 

No  nation  is  rich  enough  to  spurn  the  help  which 
God  gives  in  such  rare  minds  as  these,  though  their 
childhood  is  housed  in  hovels.  No  nation  should 
be  so  short-sighted  as  to  pile  up  obstacles  in  their 
path,  or  even  to  leave  any  which  can  be  removed. 
As  the  husbandman  at  the  foot  of  the  western  Sierras, 
at  great  cost  and  with  infinite  pains,  makes  a  secure 
channel  to  bring  the  fertilizing  mountain  stream  to 
his  fields,  guiding  to  it  every  rivulet  which  can 
swell  its  volume,  and  thus  makes  the  parched  desert 
blossom  like  the  rose  and  wave  with  golden  harvests, 
so  may  a  nation  well  do  much  to  smooth  the  way  for 

[46] 


THE     HIGHER     EDUCATION 


its  gifted  children  to  enlarge  their  faculties,  to  enrich 
their  minds,  and  thus  pour  far  and  wide  the  benefi- 
cent streams  of  their  influence,  and  give  us  richer 
harvests  than  those  of  corn  and  wine  and  oil. 

3.  Again,  we  need  to  put  the  higher  education 
within  the  reach  of  the  poor,  because  we  cannot 
afford  to  endow  the  rich  alone  with  the  tremendous 
power  of  trained  and  cultivated  minds.  To  do  this 
might  form  an  aristocracy  of  formidable  strength. 
So  long  as  the  poor  have  anything  like  an  equal 
chance  with  the  rich  of  developing  their  intellectual 
power,  we  have  little  to  fear  from  an  aristocracy  of 
wealth;  but  let  wealth  alone  have  the  highest  in- 
tellectual training,  let  the  poor  as  a  class  be  shut 
out  from  the  schools  of  generous  culture,  and  we 
must  either  consign  the  control  of  all  intellectual  and 
political  life  to  the  hands  of  the  rich,  or  else  have  a 
constant  scene  of  turbulence  between  the  ignorant 
many  and  the  enlightened  few.  Bitter  class  hatred 
would  be  inevitable.  There  can  be  no  stable  equili- 
brium, no  permanent  prosperity  for  such  a  society. 

Learning,  too,  would  probably  soon  give  place 
to  pedantry,  displayed  like  the  ribbons  and  orders 
of  a  petty  German  court.  The  scholarship  which 
is  a  mere  concomitant  and  badge  of  wealth  would 
become  vain  and  meretricious  and  shallow. 

Yet  there  are  men  who,  professing  to  speak  in  the 
interests  of  the  poor,  of  true  learning,  and  of  sound 
philosophy,  inveigh  against  a  system  like  that  which 
in  Michigan  opens  the  doors  of  all  learning  to  the 

[47] 


SELECTED      ADDRESSES 


humblest  as  well  as  to  the  richest  child,  and  insist 
that  we  shall  make  every  one  pay  to  the  full  the  cost 
of  his  high  school  and  university  education.  Do 
they  not  see  that  this  would  be  a  matter  of  little 
consequence  to  the  rich,  who  could  easily  secure  their 
training  at  any  expense,  but  that  it  would  consign 
the  poor  children,  however  endowed  with  talent, 
to  the  humblest  acquisitions  of  learning  or  to  the 
most  trying  struggle  to  attain  to  true  culture? 
It  is  in  the  interest  of  the  poor,  it  is  in  the  interest 
of  true  and  enlightened  democracy,  that  we  insist 
that  the  highest  education  shall  be  accessible  to  all 
classes. 

The  most  democratic  atmosphere  in  the  world  is 
that  of  the  college.  There  all  meet  on  absolutely 
equal  terms.  Nowhere  else  do  the  accidents  of  birth 
or  condition  count  for  so  little.  The  son  of  the 
millionnaire  has  no  advantage  over  the  son  of  the 
washerwoman  or  over  the  liberated  slave,  who  has 
hardly  clothes  enough  to  cover  his  nakedness. 
Nowhere  in  the  world  is  a  man  so  truly  weighed  and 
estimated  by  his  brains  and  his  character.  God 
forbid  that  the  day  should  ever  come  when  the  spirit 
of  snobbishness  or  aristocracy  or  pride  of  wealth 
should  rule  in  our  college  halls. 

Talk  about  oppressing  the  poor  by  sustaining  the 
University!  It  is  the  sons  and  daughters  of  the  men 
who  are  poor  or  of  very  moderate  means  who  form 
the  great  majority  of  the  students  here  and  in  almost 
every  institution  of  higher  learning.     I  could  move 

[48] 


THE     HIGHER     EDUCATION 


your  hearts  to  pity  or  to  admiration  if  I  could  call  one 
after  another  of  many  whom  I  see  before  me  on  this 
occasion  to  come  up  here  and  tell  what  toils  they  have 
performed  for  long  and  weary  years,  what  hardships 
and  privations  they  and  their  parents  have  endured 
to  gather  up  the  few  hundreds  of  dollars  needed  to 
maintain  them  with  the  closest  and  most  pinching 
economy  during  their  few  years  of  residence  here. 
I  hope  that  those  who  practise  high  thinking  and 
plain  living  will  always  be  in  the  majority  on  these 
grounds.  Sad,  indeed,  will  it  be  for  the  University 
and  sad  for  the  State  when  such  as  they  cannot  by 
manly  effort  secure  to  themselves  the  best  help  which 
the  resources  of  this  school  can  offer  to  them. 

Anything  more  hateful,  more  repugnant  to  our 
natural  instincts,  more  calamitous  at  once  to  learn- 
ing and  to  the  people,  more  unrepublican,  more 
undemocratic,  more  unchristian  than  a  system  which 
should  confine  the  priceless  boon  of  higher  education 
to  the  rich  I  cannot  conceive. 

Have  an  aristocracy  of  birth  if  you  will,  or  of  riches 
if  you  wish,  but  give  our  plain  boys  from  the  log 
cabins  a  chance  to  develop  their  minds  with  the 
best  learning,  and  we  will  fear  nothing  from  your 
aristocracy.  It  will  speedily  become  either  ridiculous 
or  harmless,  or,  better  still,  will  be  stimulated  to 
intellectual  activity  by  learning  that  in  the  fierce 
competitions  of  life  something  besides  blue  blood 
or  inherited  wealth  is  needed  to  compete  with  the 
brains  and  character  from  the  cabins. 

[49] 


SELECTED      ADDRESSES 


4.  Another  cogent  reason  for  opening  the  privileges 
of  higher  education  to  all  classes  in  this  country  is 
found  in  our  distribution  of  political  power  through- 
out the  community.  The  largest  part  of  the  public 
action  which  most  concerns  us  is  taken  or  determined 
by  local  organizations.  The  successful  working  of 
our  republican  system  depends  upon  the  distribution 
through  the  smaller  towns  and  villages  and  through 
the  rural  districts  of  men  of  intelligence.  If  all 
the  cultivated  minds  were  concentrated  in  one  capital 
or  in  a  few  great  cities,  we  could  not  perpetuate  our 
form  of  government.  Any  strong  tendency  toward 
such  a  result  must  seriously  interfere  with  the  purity 
and  efficiency  of  our  institutions. 

We  need,  therefore,  to  reach  with  our  best  training 
men  drawn  from  all  classes,  from  all  pursuits  in  life, 
and  men  who  are  to  return  to  all  honorable  and 
worthy  vocations,  not  alone  in  the  great  cities,  but 
in  all  parts  of  the  land.  It  is  by  this  diffusion  of  the 
educated  men,  and  by  the  diffusion  through  them 
of  the  direct  and  indirect  advantages  of  education 
among  the  inhabitants  of  every  town  and  hamlet, 
that  a  great  school  of  learning  does  its  highest  work 
and  justifies  its  claim  to  support  by  the  whole  people. 
It  disseminates  over  the  whole  State  men  who  are 
trained  to  be  intelligent  leaders  of  thought,  to 
enlighten  their  neighbors  on  important  affairs,  to 
expose  the  fallacies  of  charlatans  in  politics,  science, 
and  religion,  to  keep  alive  an  interest  in  education, 
to  discharge  all  the  duties  of  citizenship,  and,  if 

[50] 


THE     HIGHER     EDUCATION 


need  be,  of  public  office.  It  thus  keeps  the  whole 
body  politic  vigorous  and  healthy  with  the  life- 
giving  currents  which  it  sends  to  the  extremities, 
as  well  as  with  the  strength  which  it  lends  to  the 
heart.  It  is  not  true  that  it  blesses  only  the  men 
who  receive  its  degrees.  Through  them  it  blesses 
all  around  them.  Its  graduates  are  often  the  medium 
of  greater  blessings  to  others  than  to  themselves. 
Mark  the  venerable  physician,  who,  trained  to  the 
highest  professional  skill  in  its  halls,  has  ministered 
with  unselfish  devotion  for  a  generation  to  the  sick 
and  suffering.  Has  he  or  have  they  been  most 
blessed  by  his  education?  Take  the  lawyer,  whose 
advice  for  years  the  widow,  the  orphan,  the  poor 
have  instinctively  sought,  whose  opposition  the 
criminal  has  dreaded,  whose  counsel  and  guidance 
the  town,  the  county,  the  public  have  always  desired 
in  every  emergency;  has  his  power  been  only  or 
chiefly  a  good  fortune  to  himself.'^  In  a  large  sense 
it  is  true  that  the  advantages  of  the  higher  education 
cannot  be  selfishly  monopolized  by  the  recipient  of  it. 
It  is  not  truly  enjoyed,  it  can  hardly  be  used  in  any 
honorable  way  without  conferring  benefits  on  others. 
You  might  as  well  talk  of  the  sun  monopolizing 
and  enjoying  alone  the  light  which  is  generated  in 
it  as  talk  of  a  scholar  monopolizing  the  advantages 
of  his  education.  The  moment  the  sun  shines, 
the  wide  universe  around  is  bathed  in  its  life-giving 
beams.  Intellectual  activity  is  necessarily  luminous, 
outgoing,    diffusive,    reproductive.     The    graduates 

[51] 


SELECTED      ADDRESSES 


who  are  going  out  from  this  University  are  not  taking 
with  them  hidden  treasures  to  enjoy  in  secret  as  the 
miser  gloats  in  the  soHtude  of  his  garret  over  his 
gold,  but  rather  precious  seed  which  they  will  sow 
in  every  town  and  hamlet  of  this  broad  State,  while 
the  thousands  about  them  will  share  with  them  the 
harvest  of  their  sowing. 

I  need  hardly  say  that  any  system  which  should 
confine  the  best  education  to  the  rich  would  greatly 
curtail  this  diffusion  of  the  blessings  of  education 
and  would,  doubtless,  tend  to  concentrate  the 
educated  men  almost  entirely  in  the  great  cities. 
Is  it  too  much  to  say  that  it  would  tend  to  politi- 
cal centralization  and  to  a  loss  of  the  inestimable 
advantages  which  flow  from  the  wise  and  vigorous 
local  administration  of  public  affairs,  and  from  the 
comparative  homogeneousness  in  our  society  caused 
by  the  distribution  of  educated  men  throughout  our 
communities? 

5.  The  general  opinion  of  mankind  in  all  Christian 
lands  has  favored  some  plan  of  bringing  liberal 
education  within  the  reach  of  the  men  of  humble 
means.  ^It  has  been  reserved  for  these  latter  days 
to  make  the  discovery  that  there  is  danger  in  thus 
opening  the  fountains  of  learning  to  the  poor  as 
well  as  rich.  For  the  most  part  the  direction  of 
education  has  been  in  the  hands  of  the  church. 
Now  whatever  criticism  may  be  made  upon  the 
church  through  these  eighteen  centuries,  she  has 
with  impartial  hand  held  wide  open  to  men  of  high 

[52] 


THE     HIGHER     EDUCATION 


and  of  low  degree  alike  the  gates  to  generous  learning. 
She  has  encouraged  and  persuaded  the  rich  to  endow 
her  schools  and  colleges  and  universities,  so  that 
the  instruction  might  be  almost,  if  not  entirely,  free. 
She  has  taught  them  to  found  scholarships  and 
fellowships,  which  would  enable  the  poorest  boy  to 
spend  the  best  years  of  his  youth  and  manhood  in 
the  still  air  of  delightful  study. 

The  rulers  of  every  nation  of  Europe  have  cherished 
their  great  schools  of  learning  as  the  choicest  jewels 
in  their  crowns.  They  have  lavished  wealth  on  them 
and  endowed  them  so  richly  that  at  most  of  them  the 
cost  of  instruction  is  little  more  than  nominal,  and 
peasants  and  princes  are  found  on  the  same  bench 
listening  to  the  lectures  of  the  great  scholars  in  every 
science.  What  glorious  monuments  of  wise  generos- 
ity these  universities  have  been !  Royal  houses  have 
risen  and  disappeared,  kingdoms  have  come  and  gone, 
the  map  of  Europe  has  been  made  and  remade  again 
and  again,  but  the  great  mediaeval  schools,  to  whose 
halls  centuries  ago  thousands  of  eager  scholars 
trooped  from  all  parts  of  Europe,  still  stand  fresh 
in  eternal  youth,  welcoming  with  princely  hospital- 
ity poor  and  rich  to  their  halls,  pouring  out  their 
streams  of  blessing  from  generation  to  generation 
and  from  age  to  age,  with  a  flow  as  copious  and 
as  unceasing  as  the  Danube  or  the  Rhine.  If  we 
may  judge  by  the  past,  what  work  of  man  is 
more  enduring  or  more  beneficent  than  a  strong 
university? 

[53] 


SELECTED      ADDRESSES 


In  this  country,  too,  where  the  early  settlers  began 
to  lay  the  foundation  of  our  most  venerable  university 
before  they  had  made  comfortable  homes  for  them- 
selves, we  find  public  and  private  generosity  vieing 
in  supplying  the  wants  of  the  infant  college.  While 
the  colonial  authorities  voted  appropriations,  we 
see  the  self-denying  men  and  women  stripping  their 
scanty  libraries  of  books  and  their  ill-supplied  tables 
of  crockery  to  equip  the  struggling  institution, 
whither  the  sons  of  all  might  repair  to  be  trained 
for  every  worthy  work  in  State  and  church.  Con- 
tributions were  solicited  for  the  maintenance  of 
poor  students,  so  that,  to  borrow  the  language  of  an 
early  president  to  the  United  Commissioners  of  the 
Colonies,  "the  commonwealth  may  be  furnished 
with  knowing  and  understanding  men  and  the  church 
with  an  able  ministry." 

From  that  time  to  this  it  has  been  the  aim  of  the 
guardians  of  that  ancient  university,  and  of  every 
college  which  has  been  established  in  the  land,  to 
furnish  education  at  such  a  rate  that  boys  of  modest 
means  could  procure  it.  Not  one  such  institution 
has  been  administered  on  the  theory  that  the  students 
should  pay  the  full  cost  of  the  education  furnished. 
Endowments  and  scholarships  have  been  sought 
and  secured.  In  some  cases  so  liberal  provision 
has  been  made  that  prudent  students,  it  is  reported, 
have  actually  been  able  to  meet  their  expenses  and 
lay  aside  a  balance.  In  some  parts  of  the  country, 
it  is  said,   there   has   sprung   up   between  colleges 

[54] 


THE     HIGHER     EDUCATION 


an  unseemly  competition  in  securing  students  by 
bidding  for  them  with  pecuniary  temptations.  But 
these  abuses  and  indiscretions  at  least  show  how 
deep-seated  is  the  conviction  in  the  American  mind 
that  poverty  shall  not  keep  a  gifted  youth  from  the 
opportunity  for  a  liberal  education.  This  conviction 
is  happily  so  firmly  rooted  there  need  be  no  fear 
that  it  will  be  conquered  by  the  laissez  oiler  theory, 
which  would  make  no  special  provision  for  placing 
the  higher  education  within  the  reach  of  those  who 
cannot  defray  the  full  expenses  of  it. 

But  from  that  section  of  the  country  which  is 
most  amply  provided  with  privately  endowed  colleges, 
even  from  those  States  whose  oldest  colleges  were 
established,  or  in  their  early  days  assisted,  by  legis- 
lative appropriations,  we  sometimes  hear  exception 
taken  to  the  method  by  which  this  and  other  West- 
ern universities  have  been  endowed  and  sustained; 
namely,  by  grants  of  land  and  by  taxation.  The 
educational  problem  before  the  early  settlers  of 
Michigan  and  other  Western  States  was  peculiar. 
These  States  were  occupied  rapidly  and  for  the 
most  part  by  men  and  women  who  had  been  well 
trained  in  schools  and  colleges.  They  were  extremely 
desirous  that  their  children  should  be  thoroughly 
educated.  The  National  Government  had  given 
them  an  endowment  with  which  to  begin  a  university. 
They  had  energy,  ambition,  a  love  of  intelligence, 
but  they  had  little  ready  means  for  the  planting  of 
colleges.     They  saw  plainly  that  to  build  up  by  pri- 

[55] 


SELECTED      ADDRESSES 


vate  benefactions  a  first-rate  school  of  higher  learn- 
ing, like  the  best  in  the  East,  would  require  here, 
as  it  had  required  there,  a  hundred  years  of  toil. 
Meanwhile,  their  children  and  their  children's 
children  would  have  passed  away.  Two  or  three 
generations  must  live  and  die  without  the  facilities 
for  training  which  a  strong  and  thoroughly  equipped 
school  could  furnish.  Was  there  any  question  what 
they  ought  to  do.^  Plainly,  the  wise  policy  for  them 
was  to  avail  themselves  of  the  national  endowment, 
and  then,  if  need  be,  to  supplement  it  as  prosperity 
should  bring  the  State  ampler  means. 

It  was  not  until  1867,  when  the  University  had 
already  become  strong  and  renowned,  when  the 
pupils  were  more  numerous  than  those  of  any  other 
institution  in  the  land,  that  the  State  was  called 
to  give  the  first  penny  to  its  support,  and  then 
the  whole  appropriation  was  fifteen  thousand  dollars 
a  year,  which  was  just  one  twentieth  of  a  mill  tax 
on  the  appraisal  of  the  taxable  property  of  this  rich 
Commonwealth.  The  total  sum  received  by  tax  for 
the  University  and  drawn  from  the  State  treasury 
down  to  January,  1879,  is  in  round  numbers  four 
hundred  and  sixty-nine  thousand  dollars.  If  we 
compute  this  as  distributed  over  the  entire  time 
since  the  foundation  of  the  University  we  shall  find 
that  it  is  an  average  of  twelve  thousand  dollars  a 
year,  or  one  fifty-second  of  a  mill  on  the  present 
valuation.  A  man  who  is  taxed  on  one  thousand 
dollars  would  pay  not  quite  two  cents  a  year.     This 

[56] 


THE     HIGHER     EDUCATION 


is  the  oppressive  burden  which  the  University  has 
laid  on  the  tax-payer  for  the  support  of  an  institution 
which  brings  the  treasures  of  the  best  knowledge  to 
his  children  and  to  yours. 

The  grounds  upon  which  taxation  for  the  support 
of  the  higher  education  justly  rests  were  so  ably  set 
forth  by  the  distinguished  orator^  of  last  year,  whose 
eloquent  words  are  still  ringing  in  our  ears,  that  it 
would  be  superjfluous  for  me  to  dwell  upon  them  at 
this  time.  I  am  now  aiming  merely  to  remind  you 
that  at  an  expenditure  which  it  is  simply  ridiculous 
to  call  burdensome,  this  prosperous  State  of  Michigan 
has,  through  the  wisdom  of  her  founders,  succeeded 
in  furnishing  the  higher  education  to  all  her  sons 
and  daughters,  without  distinction  of  birth,  race, 
color,  or  wealth.  The  fathers  acted  with  a  wise 
and  far-seeing  statesmanship.  They  saved  to  the 
State  three  generations  of  educated  men.  Most 
of  them  lived  to  see  such  a  supply  of  buildings, 
libraries,  scientific  collections,  and  other  apparatus 
of  a  university  here  as  could  not  by  private  endow- 
ments have  been  secured  perhaps  in  a  century. 
Indeed  it  is  probable  that  private  endowments 
would  have  been  scattered  among  many  small 
colleges,  as  they  have  been  in  other  States,  and  that 
no  institution  at  all  comparable  to  this  in  strength 
would  have  grown  up  in  Michigan.  By  planting 
the  University  so  early,  they  have  enriched  every 
profession  and  nearly  every  vocation  in  Michigan 

^  Hon.  George  V.  N.  Lothrop. 

[57] 


SELECTED      ADDRESSES 


with  intelligent  and  well-equipped  men.  Through 
this  school  of  learning  they  have  attracted  to  the 
State  a  large  number  of  brilliant  and  scholarly  youth, 
who  after  the  completion  of  their  studies  have  chosen 
this  Commonwealth  as  their  home,  and  are  adorning 
every  calling  in  life.  Is  there  any  one  act  of  our 
fathers  by  which  they  have  done  more  to  promote 
the  prosperity  of  the  State,  to  make  its  name  known 
and  honored  throughout  this  land  and  beyond  the  sea, 
than  by  the  establishment  of  a  university  in  which 
the  best  learning  of  the  times  should  be  practically 
open  to  all,  so  that  whoever  would  might  come  and 
take  freely,  almost  without  money  and  without  price? 
Regal  indeed  are  the  gifts  of  nature  to  Michigan. 
A  soil  which  bountifully  rewards  the  toil  of  the  hus- 
bandman and  yearly  jQlls  to  overflowing  his  granaries 
and  barns ;  a  climate  so  propitious  that  a  large  part 
of  the  State  is  a  veritable  paradise  of  fruits,  where 
Heaven  kindly  draws  the  sting  of  frost  from  the  west 
wind  so  that  the  breezes  fall  soft  as  the  gales  of  Eden 
on  the  peach  and  the  pear  and  the  grape;  mines  richer 
in  enduring  wealth  than  those  of  Golconda;  forests 
still  magnificent  in  primeval  grandeur,  and  rivalling 
the  mines  in  value;  salt  wells  which  yield  the  wealth 
of  subterranean  seas  in  inexhaustible  and  unceasing 
stream;  the  broad  lakes  bound  by  the  hand  of  God 
around  the  State  like  a  zone  of  beauty;  the  sky,  the 
inland  seas,  the  earth,  nay,  the  waters  under  the 
earth,  all  combine  to  pour  their  richest  contributions 
into  the  lap  of  this  favored  Commonwealth. 

[58] 


THE     HIGHER     EDUCATION 


Yet,  with  all  these  riches,  poor  indeed  had  been 
the  State  had  not  a  brave  and  manly  and  intelligent 
people  chosen  it  as  their  home.  For  earth  and  sky 
and  water  and  mine  had  all  been  here  for  ages. 
But  savages  could  not  of  these  make  a  prosperous 
commonwealth.  It  is  intelligence  and  character 
alone  which  can  make  a  great  and  thriving  State. 
And  so  the  grave  question  which  pressed  itself  on  the 
fathers  still  forces  itself  on  us.  How  shall  we  train 
our  children  to  make  the  most  of  these  conspicuous 
advantages,  to  build  a  State  which  shall  be  truly 
great,  to  contribute  their  full  part  to  the  honor  and 
glory  of  the  nation,  to  lead  happy  and  useful  lives, 
to  be  a  blessing  to  mankind  .^^  Can  we  do  better 
than  to  answer  this  question  in  the  spirit  in  which 
they  answered  it  when,  in  accordance  with  the 
direction  of  the  Ordinance  of  1787,  they  took  care 
that  schools  and  the  means  of  education  should  be 
forever  encouraged,  and  laid  deep  and  strong  the 
foundations  of  school  and  university? 

We  may  be  pardoned  for  believing  that  the  result 
in  our  own  State  has  justified  what  we  may  call  the 
Michigan  policy.  We  cling  to  it  still.  But  whatever 
be  the  method  of  endowment  of  our  great  schools, 
may  the  day  never  come  when  they  shall  be  inac- 
cessible to  the  humblest  youth  in  whom  God  has 
lodged  the  divine  spark  of  genius,  or  that  more  com- 
mon but  sometimes  not  less  serviceable  gift  of  useful 
talent.  Let  not  a  misapplication  of  the  laissez  faire 
doctrine  in  political  economy,  which  has  its  proper 

[59] 


SELECTED      ADDRESSES 


place,  lead  us  to  the  fatal  mistake  of  building  up 
a  pedantic  aristocracy.  Good  learning  is  always 
catholic  and  generous.  It  welcomes  the  humblest 
votary  of  science  and  bids  him  kindle  his  lamp  freely 
at  the  common  shrine.  It  frowns  on  caste  and 
bigotry.  It  spurns  the  artificial  distinctions  of 
conventional  society.  It  greets  all  comers  whose 
intellectual  gifts  entitle  them  to  admission  to  the 
goodly  fellowship  of  cultivated  minds.  It  is  essen- 
tially democratic  in  the  best  sense  of  that  term. 
In  justice,  then,  to  the  true  spirit  of  learning,  to 
the  best  interests  of  society,  to  the  historic  life  of 
this  State,  let  us  now  hold  wide  open  the  gates  of 
this  University  to  all  our  sons  and  daughters,  rich 
or  poor,  whom  God  by  gifts  of  intellect  and  by 
kindly  providences  has  called  to  seek  for  a  liberal 
education. 


[60] 


Ill 

COMMEMORATIVE  ORATION 


JUNE  30,   1887 

DELIVERED  AT  THE  SEMI-CENTENNIAL  CELEBRATION 

OF  THE  ORGANIZATION  OF  THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  MICHIGAN 


Ill 

COMMEMORATIVE    ORATION 

W  E  celebrate  to-day  the  jubilee  of  this  University. 
Her  years  are  indeed  few  when  compared  with  those 
of  Heidelberg  University,  which  last  year  kept  her 
five  hundredth  anniversary,  or  with  those  of  the  Uni- 
versity of  Edinburgh,  which  recently  observed  her 
tercentenary,  or  even  with  those  of  Harvard  Univer- 
sity, which  last  autumn  gathered  an  illustrious  assem- 
bly to  celebrate  the  two  hundred  and  fiftieth  year 
of  her  prosperous  life.  But  in  this  country,  where 
we  judge  men  by  their  achievements  rather  than  by 
their  lineage,  we  properly  judge  of  institutions  by 
their  deeds  rather  than  by  their  age.  Wlien  we  con- 
sider what  we  must,  in  all  soberness  of  language,  call 
the  extraordinary  development  of  this  University, 
especially  during  the  last  thirty-five  years;  when  we 
remember  that  men  are  living  who  have  shot  wild 
deer  upon  the  grounds  which  now  form  our  Campus ; 
when  we  see  that  from  the  number  of  her  students  and 
from  the  extent,  variety,  and  excellence  of  her  work,  she 
is  deemed  by  the  public  not  unworthy  a  place  by  the 
side  of  the  oldest  and  best  endowed  universities  of  our 
country,  and  that  she  has  sent  out  more  than  eight 
thousand  graduates  who  are  adorning  all  honorable 
vocations  in  all  parts  of  the  world,  —  we  may  well 

[63] 


SELECTED      ADDRESSES 


pause  for  a  day  even  at  this  early  stage  in  her  history 
to  rejoice  at  the  unparalleled  rapidity  of  her  growth, 
to  acknowledge  our  grateful  appreciation  of  the  men 
who  laid  her  foundations  with  prescient  wisdom,  and 
of  the  equally  wise  men  who  builded  thereon  in  the 
broad  spirit  of  the  founders,  and  to  stimulate  our 
hearts  with  fresh  hope  and  courage  for  the  future. 
The  vigorous  and  virile  life  of  the  West,  which  within 
the  memory  of  many  now  before  me  has  reared  im- 
mense cities  on  the  prairies  and  has  builded  States 
that  are  empires  all  the  way  from  the  Great  Lakes  to 
the  Pacific,  has  also  poured  its  currents  through  the 
veins  of  this  school  of  learning  and  has  hurried  it 
in  a  few  brief  years  to  the  development  which  the 
strongest  of  the  New  England  universities  took  two 
centuries  and  more  to  reach. 

We  might  in  a  very  just  sense  celebrate  this  year 
the  centennial  of  the  life  of  the  University.  For  the 
germ  of  that  life  and  of  the  life  of  all  the  State  univer- 
sities in  the  West  is  found  in  that  great  instrument, 
the  Ordinance  of  1787,  which  was  adopted  just  a  hun- 
dred years  ago  the  thirteenth  of  next  month.  You 
remember  that  memorable  article,  whose  first  sen- 
tence we  have  placed  here  upon  our  walls,  a  sentence 
which  should  be  engraved  in  letters  of  gold  on  fitting 
monuments  in  every  State  that  was  carved  out  of 
the  Northwest  Territory:  "Religion,  morality,  and 
knowledge  being  necessary  to  good  government  and 
the  happiness  of  mankind,  schools  and  the  means 
of  education  shall  forever  be  encouraged." 

[64] 


COMMEMORATIVE     ORATION,      1887 

Within  a  fortnight  after  the  adoption  of  the  Ordi- 
nance, Congress  acted  up  to  the  spirit  of  the  impera- 
tive sAaZZ  in  that  instrument  by  making  appropriations 
of  lands  for  a  university  and  schools  in  Ohio,  the 
first  of  the  long  series  of  appropriations  of  lands  by 
the  General  Government  for  educational  purposes. 
The  precedent  then  established  has  been  uniformly 
followed  in  the  admission  of  new  States.  Well, 
therefore,  might  not  only  this  University,  but  all 
the  public  schools  and  the  State  universities  in  the 
Northwest,  join  in  grateful  observance  of  the  hun- 
dredth anniversary  of  the  Great  Charter  of  freedom 
and  intelligence  for  this  region.  Well  might  they 
together  commemorate  the  centennial  of  the  inau- 
guration of  that  fruitful  policy  which  has  endowed 
institutions  of  learning,  from  the  lowest  to  the 
highest,  by  the  gift  of  public  lands. 

It  was  in  strict  accordance  with  the  spirit  of  the 
great  Ordinance  that  Congress  took  action,  March 
26,  1804,  reserving  for  a  seminary  of  learning  a 
township  in  each  of  the  three  divisions  of  the  Terri- 
tory of  Indiana,  one  of  which  became  in  1805  the 
Territory  of  Michigan  and  so  received  the  grant. 
And  on  this  day  when  we  gladly  recall  the  names  of 
our  benefactors,  let  us  not  forget  to  acknowledge 
that  our  endowments  were  materially  enlarged  by 
the  generosity  of  the  aboriginal  inhabitants  of  this 
region.  By  the  Treaty  of  Fort  Meigs,  negotiated 
in  1817,  the  Ottawas,  Chippewas,  and  Pottawatomies 
granted  six  sections  of  land  to  be  divided  between 

[65] 


SELECTED      ADDRESSES 


the  Church  of  St.  Anne,  in  Detroit,  and  the  College 
of  Detroit.  This  College  of  Detroit,  which  was  the 
lineal  ancestor  of  the  University,  was  not  established 
until  a  month  after  the  treaty.  When  steps  were 
taken  in  1824  to  select  the  lands  ceded  by  the  Indians, 
such  difficulties  were  encountered  in  complying  with 
the  conditions  of  the  act  of  1804  that  Congress  in 
1826  made  the  location  of  lands  practicable  and 
authorized  the  selection  of  a  quantity  equal  in  amount 
to  twice  the  original  grant.  The  entire  endowment 
of  lands  thus  became  equal  to  two  townships  and 
three  sections.  There  is  something  pathetic  in  this 
gift  of  the  Indians,  who  were  even  then  so  rapidly 
fading  away.  They  doubtless  hoped  that  some  of 
their  descendants  might  attain  to  the  knowledge 
which  the  white  man  learned  in  his  schools  and  which 
gave  him  such  wonderful  power  and  skill.  Their 
hope  has  never  been  realized,  so  far  as  I  know,  by 
the  education  of  any  full-blooded  Indian  at  the 
University.  We  cannot  rival  Harvard,  which  has  on 
her  roll  of  graduates  the  unpronounceable  name  of 
one  of  the  aborigines.  But  we  should  never  forget 
the  generous  impulses  of  the  men  of  the  forest  who 
gave  of  what  was  dearest  to  them  an  amount  sur- 
passing in  ultimate  value  the  gifts  for  which  the 
names  of  Nicholas  Brown  and  Elihu  Yale  and  John 
Harvard  were  bestowed  on  colleges  in  New  England.^ 

*  This  comparison  of  the  generosity  of  the  Indians  to  that  of  the 
founders  of  Eastern  colleges  was  first  made  by  Judge  Cooley,  in  his 
Michigan,  p.  313. 

[66] 


COMMEMORATIVE     ORATION,      1887 

We  may  perhaps  be  grateful  also  that  in  their 
modesty  they  did  not  ask  that  their  names  should 
be  given  to  their  beneficiary. 

It  has  been  said,  and  doubtless  with  truth,  that 
the  Congresses  which  adopted  the  Ordinance  and 
made  the  earlier  gifts  of  lands  for  educational 
purposes  did  not  at  all  appreciate  how  great  were  to 
be  the  beneficent  results  of  their  action.  How  was 
it  possible  that  they  should.?  For  achievement 
has  in  this  Western  country  outrun  the  prophecy 
of  the  most  sanguine  seer.  The  wildest  dreams  of 
the  future  development  of  this  region  which  were 
cherished  by  the  most  enthusiastic  settlers  of  Ohio 
a  hundred  years  ago  seem  tame  and  prosaic  by  the 
side  of  the  romantic  facts  of  the  history  itself  as 
we  read  it  to-day.  How  could  they  have  imagined 
that  by  this  time  there  should  be  in  the  Northwest 
Territory,  a  large  part  of  which  was  then  an  un- 
trodden wilderness,  a  population  four  times  as  great 
as  that  of  the  whole  United  States  in  their  day,  and 
that  over  the  whole  of  it  schools,  academies,  and 
colleges  should  be  sown  multitudinous  as  the  stars 
of  heaven.  If  they  builded  better  than  they  knew, 
there  was  in  the  scope  of  their  far-reaching  work  a 
happy  augury  of  the  broad  and  generous  wisdom 
which  by  some  good  fortune  has  presided  over  the 
various  and  successive  plans  for  the  organization 
and  development  of  a  university  in  this  State. 

The  original  plan  which  was  drawn  by  Judge 
Woodward  in  1817  was  characterized  by  remarkable 

[67] 


SELECTED      ADDRESSES 


breadth,  though  sketched  in  language  ridiculously 
pedantic.  In  the  development  of  our  strictly  uni- 
versity work  we  have  yet  hardly  been  able  to  realize 
the  ideal  of  the  eccentric  but  gifted  man  who  framed 
the  project  of  the  "  Catholepistemiad,  or  University 
of  Michigania,"  with  its  "thirteen  didaxiim,  or 
professorships."  ^  Even  while  amusing  ourselves  at 
his  polyglot  vocabulary,  we  may  remember  that  our 
statesmen  of  early  days  carried  on  their  discussions 
under  classical  pseudonyms;  that  Mr.  Jefiferson 
suggested  names  for  the  -Western  States  hardly  less 
remarkable  than  the  formidable  title  with  which  the 
University  was  burdened  at  its  christening,  and  that 
the  classical  dictionary  was  fairly  emptied  on  the 
towns  of  central  New  York.  Judge  Woodward, 
apparently  mindful  of  the  fact  that  universities  had 
in  every  land  grown  up  before  the  lower  schools 
and  had  been  the  chief  instrumentality  in  nourishing 
them,  provided  in  his  scheme  that  the  President 
and  the  Professors  of  the  University  should  have 
the  entire  direction  of  collegiate,  secondary,  and 
lower  education. 

They  were  to  have  the  power — I  quote  his  compre- 
hensive language  —  "to  establish  colleges,  academies, 
schools,  libraries,  museums,  athenaeums,  botanic  gar- 
dens, laboratories,  and  other  useful  literary  and  sci- 
entific institutions  consonant  to  the  laws  of  the 
United  States  of  America  and  of  Michigan,  and  to 

1  The  original  draft  in  the  handwriting  of  Judge  Woodward  is  in  the 
University  Library. 

[68] 


COMMEMORATIVE     ORATION,      1887 

provide  for  and  appoint  directors,  visitors,  curators, 
librarians,  instructors  and  instructrixes,  in,  among, 
and  throughout  the  various  counties,  cities,  towns, 
townships,  or  other  geographical  divisions  of  Michi- 
gan." The  instruction  in  every  grade  was  to  be  gra- 
tuitous to  those  who  were  unable  to  pay  the  modest 
fees  fixed.  Fifteen  per  cent,  of  the  taxes  imposed 
and  fifteen  per  cent,  of  the  proceeds  of  four  lotteries 
were  to  be  devoted  to  the  support  of  this  institution 
thus  charged  with  the  conduct  of  all  public  educa- 
tion in  Michigan.  Whatever  criticisms  may  be  made 
upon  this  scheme  it  certainly  showed  in  its  author 
a  remarkably  broad  conception  of  the  range  which 
should  be  given  to  education  here,  a  conception,  it 
may  be  believed,  which  was  never  lost  from  sight, 
and  which  doubtless  made  easy  the  acceptance 
twenty  years  later  of  the  large  plans  of  educational 
organization  that  were  then  readily  adopted.  It  was 
a  happy  prophecy  of  the  truly  liberal  spirit  which 
was  subsequently  to  guide  in  the  conduct  of  the  Uni- 
versity, that  the  first  Professors  appointed  for  the 
"  Catholepistemiad "  were  the  Rev.  John  Monteith, 
the  Presbyterian  minister  in  Detroit,  and  Gabriel 
Richard,  the  Roman  Catholic  Apostolical  Vicar  of 
Michigan.  They  established  primary  schools,  and 
also  the  college  in  Detroit  under  the  name  of  The 
First  College  of  Michigania.  For  the  aid  of  the 
Institution  some  few  thousands  of  dollars  were  raised 
by  subscription,  and  the  unused  balance  of  a  fund, 
given  by  citizens  of  Montreal  and  Mackinaw  to  help 

[69] 


SELECTED      ADDRESSES 


the  sufferers  from  the  fire  which  destroyed  a  large 
part  of  Detroit  in  1805,  was,  at  the  request  of  its 
donors,  turned  into  its  treasury. 

In  1821  the  governor  and  judges  translated  Judge 
Woodward's  charter  into  modern  forms  of  speech 
and  modified  it  in  some  particulars.  They  gave  to 
the  institution  the  simple  name  of  The  University 
of  Michigan.  Repealing  the  act  of  1817,  they  yet 
retained  in  the  act  or  charter  of  1821  the  grant  to  the 
University  of  the  power  to  establish  colleges  and 
schools  so  far  as  the  funds,  which  were  no  longer 
to  be  furnished  by  taxation,  would  permit.  The 
catholicity  of  this  charter  of  1821  is  shown  in  this 
memorable  article: 

"Be  it  enacted,  that  persons  of  every  religious 
denomination  shall  be  capable  of  being  elected  trus- 
tees; nor  shall  any  person,  as  president,  professor, 
instructor,  or  pupil,  be  refused  admittance  for  his 
conscientious  persuasion  in  matters  of  religion,  pro- 
vided he  demean  himself  in  a  proper  manner  and 
conform  to  such  rules  as  may  be  established." 

The  Trustees  maintained  in  Detroit  for  some  time 
what  was  known  as  a  Lancasterian  School,  and  until 
1837  a  classical  school,  but  their  chief  business  con- 
sisted in  caring  for  the  lands.  In  those  early  years, 
when  the  population  of  the  Territory  was  small,  the 
college  was  not  yet  needed.  But  what  we  want  to 
keep  distinctly  in  mind  to-day  and  to  state  with 
clearness  and  emphasis  is  that  in  both  the  act  of  1817 
and  in  that  of  1821,  those  two  early  charters  of  the 

[70] 


COMMEMORATIVE     ORATION,      1887 

University,  what  we  may  call  the  Michigan  idea  of  a 
system  of  education,  beginning  with  the  University 
and  stretching  down  through  all  the  lower  grades  to 
the  primary  school,  was  distinctly  set  forth.  While 
we  are  celebrating  to-day  the  semi-centennial  of  the 
present  form  of  the  organization  of  the  University, 
let  us  not  forget  that  without  impropriety  a  semi- 
centennial celebration  might  have  been  held  twenty 
years  ago;  that  there  is,  as  the  Supreme  Court  of 
the  State  has  declared,  a  legal  and  corporate  con- 
tinuity from  the  University  of  1817  to  that  of  1821, 
and  again  to  that  of  1837;  that  a  just  conception  of 
the  functions  of  a  university  was  at  least  seventy 
years  ago  made  familiar  to  the  citizens  of  Michigan; 
that  what  may  be  termed  the  Michigan  idea  of  a 
university  was  never  entirely  forgotten  from  that 
day  until  now,  and,  therefore,  that  the  memory  of 
the  fathers  who  framed  the  charter  and  nourished 
the  feeble  life  of  those  earlier  universities  should  be 
cherished  by  us  to-day  and  by  our  descendants 
forever. 

On  the  admission  of  Michigan  to  the  Union  as  a 
State,  broad  plans  for  public  education  were  taken  up 
with  a  more  vigorous  spirit  than  ever  before.  The 
men  who  framed  the  first  constitution  and  shaped  the 
early  legislation  of  the  State  were  men  of  large  views, 
great  enterprise,  and  marked  force.  They  had  come 
mainly  from  Ohio,  New  York,  and  New  England, 
though  a  few  conspicuous  leaders  were  from  Virginia. 
A  considerable  proportion  of  them  were  college  bred, 

[71] 


SELECTED      ADDRESSES 


and  all  appreciated  the  importance  of  a  well-organized 
system  of  public  education.  Isaac  E.  Crary,  a 
graduate  of  Trinity  (then  called  Washington)  College, 
in  Connecticut,  was  chairman  of  the  Committee 
on  Education  in  the  Constitutional  Convention  and 
drafted  the  article  on  that  subject  which  was  incor- 
porated into  our  first  constitution. ^  Fortunately 
he  had  made  a  study  of  Cousin's  famous  Report 
on  the  Prussian  System  of  Education,  and  under 
the  inspiration  of  that  study  sketched  in  the  article 
a  most  comprehensive  plan.  It  provided  for  the 
appointment  of  a  Superintendent  of  Public  Instruc- 
tion, an  officer  then  unknown  to  any  one  of  our 
States;  for  the  establishment  of  common  schools,  of 
a  library  for  each  township,  and  of  a  university;  and 
in  general  for  the  promotion  by  the  Legislature  of 
intellectual,  scientific,  and  agricultural  improvement. 

*  The  following  facts  concerning  Mr.  Crary,  who  exerted  so  large  an 
influence  in  establishing  the  educational  system  of  Michigan,  have  been 
obtained  from  his  widow,  residing  at  Marshall,  Michigan:  — 

Isaac  Edwin  Crary  was  born  in  Preston,  Connecticut,  October  2, 1804. 
He  was  educated  at  Bacon  Academy,  Colchester,  Connecticut,  and  at 
Washington  (now  Trinity)  College,  Hartford.  He  graduated  from  the 
college  in  its  first  class,  1829,  with  the  highest  honors  of  the  class.  For 
two  years  he  was  associated  in  the  editorial  work  of  The  New  England 
Review,  published  at  Hartford,  with  George  D.  Prentice,  subsequently 
the  well-known  editor  of  The  Louisville  Journal.  He  came  to  Michigan 
in  1832.  He  was  delegate  to  Congress  from  the  Territory  of  Michigan 
and  was  the  first  representative  of  the  State  in  Congress.  He  was  once 
Speaker  of  the  Michigan  House  of  Representatives,  and  was  a  member  of 
the  convention  which  drafted  the  first  constitution  of  the  State.  He  was 
the  author  of  the  enacting  clause  of  Michigan  laws,  "The  People  of  the 
State  of  Michigan  enact."     He  died  May  8,  1854. 

[72] 


COMMEMORATIVE     ORATION,      1887 


What  a  noble  and  statesmanlike  conception  those 
founders  of  Michigan  had  of  the  educational  outfit 
needed  by  the  young  State,  which  they  foresaw  was 
destined  to  be  a  great  and  powerful  State!  What 
a  rebuke  is  their  action  to  some  of  the  theorists  of 
our  day  who  would  confine  the  action  of  the  State 
in  providing  for  education  to  elementary  instruction ! 
Would  that  these  men  of  narrow  vision  would  study 
the  words  and  the  acts  of  the  men  who  framed  our 
first  constitution  and  shaped  our  early  legislation  on 
education,  and  would  thus  learn  what  was  the  original 
and  genuine  Michigan  spirit  and  temper  concerning 
the  support  of  all  our  educational  institutions. 

Through  Mr.  Crary's  influence,  his  friend,  the 
Rev.  John  D.  Pierce,^  a  graduate  of  Brown  Univer- 
sity, who  had  placed  Cousin's  Report  in  his  hands 
and  had  discussed  with  him  at  length  the  plans  of 
education  needed  in  Michigan,  was  appointed  the 
first  Superintendent  of  Public  Instruction.  It  was 
a  singular  good  fortune  that  befell  the  State  when 
Mr.  Pierce  was  selected  in.  that  formative  period 
for  that  important  ofiice.  I  cannot  here  pause  to 
recognize  what  he  did  for  the  common  schools. 
But  I  will  say  that  Henry  Barnard  did  not  do  more 
for  the  common  schools  of  Rhode  Island,  nor  Horace 
Mann  for  those  of  Massachusetts,   than  John   D. 

'  Mr.  Pierce  graduated  at  Brown  University  in  1822,  and  came  to 
Michigan  as  a  preacher  in  the  service  of  the  Presbyterian  Home  Mission- 
ary Society.  He  was  Superintendent  of  Public  Instruction  in  Michigan 
from  1836  to  1841.     He  died  April  5,  1882,  aged  eighty-five. 

[73] 


SELECTED      ADDRESSES 


Pierce  did  for  those  of  Michigan.  But  to-day  we 
are  primarily  concerned  with  what  he  did  for  the 
University.  Having  after  his  appointment  made  a 
journey  to  the  East  for  the  purpose  of  conferring 
with  Edward  Everett,  President  Day,  Governor 
Marcy,  and  other  prominent  men,  upon  educational 
topics,  he  sketched  with  a  free,  bold  hand,  in  his 
first  report,  presented  in  January,  1837,  a  plan  for 
the  organization  of  the  University.  He  provided 
for  the  government  of  the  Institution  by  a  Board  of 
Regents,  a  part  of  whom  were  always  to  be  certain 
State  officers,  and  a  part  of  whom  were  to  be  elected 
by  the  Legislature.  There  were  to  be  three  depart- 
ments: one  of  Literature,  Science,  and  the  Arts,  one 
of  Law,  and  one  of  Medicine.  The  scope  of  instruc- 
tion was  to  be  as  broad  as  it  was  under  Judge  Wood- 
ward's scheme.  Our  means  have  not  as  yet  enabled 
us  to  execute  in  all  particulars  the  comprehensive 
plan  which  was  framed  by  Mr.  Pierce. 

Anticipating  the  question  which  might  be  asked 
in  this  little  State  of  two  hundred  thousand  souls, 
"Can  an  institution  on  a  scale  thus  magnificent  be 
sustained.?"  this  man,  full  of  faith  in  the  future  of 
Michigan  and  in  the  intelligence  of  the  people, 
bravely  replied:  "To  suppose  that  the  wants  of  the 
State  will  not  soon  require  a  superstructure  of  fair 
proportions,  on  a  foundation  thus  broad,  would  be 
a  severe  reflection  on  the  foresight  and  patriotism  of 
the  age.  .  .  .  Let  the  State  move  forward  as  pros- 
perously for  a  few  years  to  come  as  it  has  for  a  few 

[74] 


COMMEMORATIVE     ORATION,      1887 

years  past,  and  one  half  of  the  revenue  arising  from 
the  University  fund  will  sustain  an  institution  on  a 
scale  more  magnificent  than  the  one  proposed,  and 
sustain  it  too  with  only  a  mere  nominal  admittance 
fee.  .  .  .  The  institution  then  would  present  an 
anomaly  in  the  history  of  learning,  a  university  of 
the  first  order,  open  to  all,  tuition  free."  ^ 

Moreover,  he  foresaw  plainly  what  would  be  the 
advantages  both  to  collegiate  and  to  professional 
education  in  having  professional  schools  established 
as  a  part  of  the  University.  He  paraphrased  most 
aptly  a  striking  passage  from  Lord  Bacon  as  follows : 
"To  disincorporate  any  particular  science  from 
general  knowledge  is  one  great  impediment  to  its 
advancement.  For  there  is  a  supply  of  light  and 
information  which  the  particulars  and  instances  of 
one  science  do  yield  and  present  for  the  framing 
and  correctin-g  the  axioms  of  another  science  in 
their  very  truth  and  notion.  For  each  particular 
science  has  a  dependence  upon  universal  knowledge, 
to  be  augmented  and  rectified  by  the  superior  light 
thereof."  2 

The  Superintendent's  lucid  and  intelligent  report 
made  a  deep  impression  upon  the  Legislature  and 
was  adopted  with  scarcely  a  dissenting  voice.  On 
March  18,  1837,  the  act  establishing  the  University 

^  Shearman's  System  of  Public  Instruction  and  Primary  School  Law  of 
Michigan,  pp.  23-33,  gives  a  large  part  of  Superintendent  Pierce's  first 
report. 

*  The  original  may  be  foimd  in  Spedding  and  Heath's  edition  (Ameri- 
can reprint).  Vol.  VI,  pp.  43,  44, 

[75] 


SELECTED      ADDRESSES 


was  approved.  It  followed  in  all  important  partic- 
ulars the  suggestions  of  the  Superintendent.  On 
the  twentieth  of  March  the  act  was  approved  which 
located  the  University  at  Ann  Arbor,  where  the 
forty  acres  of  land  now  constituting  our  Campus 
had  been  gratuitously  offered  as  a  site  by  the  Ann 
Arbor  Land  Company.  Three  of  the  members  of 
that  company  are  still  living  in  this  city,  E.  W. 
Morgan,  Charles  Thayer,  and  Daniel  B.  Brown,  and 
have  been  invited  to  be  present  as  our  guests  to-day. 
The  company  purchased  this  land  with  the  intention 
of  presenting  a  part  of  it  to  the  State  as  a  site  for 
the  State  House,  in  case  this  place  were  chosen  for  the 
capital.  On  the  fifth  of  June,  fifty  years  ago  this 
month,  the  Board  of  Regents  held  their  first  meeting 
in  this  town.  That  day  may  perhaps  with  as  much 
propriety  as  any  be  considered  the  natal  day  of  the 
present  organization  of  the  University. 

The  infancy  of  the  Institution  was  not  unattended 
with  perils  and  with  some  disasters,  A  bill  once 
passed  the  Senate  and  was  defeated  in  the  House  by 
only  one  vote  to  distribute  the  income  of  the  fund 
among  various  colleges  which  were  planned  or  which 
might  soon  be  planned.  Mr.  Pierce  tells  us  that  by 
his  personal  effort  he  secured  the  defeat  of  that  bill. 
He  had  obtained  from  leading  administrators  of 
colleges  in  various  parts  of  the  country,  and  had 
incorporated  in  his  annual  report,  opinions  strongly 
urging  the  concentration  of  strength  in  one  vigorous 
institution.     Yet  so  powerful  were  the  private  and 

[76] 


COMMEMORATIVE     ORATION,      1887 

local  interests  appealed  to  by  the  bill  that  the 
frittering  away  of  the  endowment  and  the  establish- 
ment of  a  brood  of  weak  and  impoverished  colleges 
were  barely  prevented. 

Again,  the  first  Board  of  Regents  made  the 
mistake  of  adopting  so  magnificent  a  plan  for  build- 
ings that  the  execution  of  it  must  have  crippled  the 
resources  of  the  treasury  for  a  long  time.  But  here 
again  the  vigilant  Superintendent,  Mr.  Pierce,  came 
to  the  rescue.  He  exercised  the  power  he  then  had 
of  vetoing  the  measure.  He  justified  his  act,  which 
temporarily  excited  a  strong  feeling  against  him, 
by  pointing  out  the  fact,  so  often  overlooked  even  in 
these  days,  that  not  bricks  and  mortar,  but  able 
teachers,  libraries,  cabinets,  and  museums,  make  a 
real  university.^ 

A  third  peril,  which  the  University  did  not  wholly 
escape,  was  the  sacrifice  of  much  of  the  value  of  the 
lands  that  constituted  the  endowment.  The  power 
to  sell  the  University  lands  was  originally  vested  in 
the  Superintendent  of  Public  Instruction,  and  the 
minimum  price  of  them  was  fixed  at  twenty  dollars 
an  acre.  In  fact  the  average  price  secured  by  the 
State  in  1837  was  twenty-two  dollars  and  eighty-five 
cents  an  acre.  Could  the  lands  have  been  sold  at 
the  prices  originally  fixed,  the  endowment  from 
the  land  grant  would  have  been  nearly  double 
what  it  is. 

*  Mr.  Pierce  gave  an  interesting  account  of  his  early  efforts  in  behalf 
of  the  University  in  a  paper  published  in  The  Michigan  Teacher,  Vol.  IV. 

[77] 


SELECTED      ADDRESSES 


But  in  1839  an  act  was  passed  authorizing  the  sale 
at  one  dollar  and  a  quarter  an  acre  of  any  lands 
located  for  University  purposes,  if  it  were  proved  that 
before  their  location  by  the  State  they  were  occupied 
and  cultivated  in  accordance  with  the  pre-emption 
law  of  Congress.     The  friends  of  the  University  were 
filled  with  alarm  at  this  prospect  of  so  great  a  reduc- 
tion of  the  expected  income.    The  Regents  suspended 
all   operations   for    organizing   the   University   and 
appealed  to  Governor  Mason  to  protect  its  interests. 
He  interposed  his  veto  of  the  bill  and  justified  his 
veto  by  a  stirring  message,  and  so  saved  the  endow- 
ment.    In  grateful  recognition  of  this  act  and  of 
the    warm    interest   he    always    manifested    in    the 
University,  we  gladly  hang  his  portrait  on  our  walls 
with   those  of   our  other  benefactors   and   friends. 
Already  in  1831,  and  again  in  1834,  the  Trustees  had 
made  a  grave  mistake  by  disposing  at  a  low  price 
of  lands  which  under  the  United  States  grant  had 
been  chosen  in  the  territory  now  occupied  by  the 
city  of  Toledo,   and  which  of  themselves,   if  kept 
until  now,  would  have  formed  a  large  endowment. 
From    1838   to    1842    there    was   much    legislation, 
reducing  the  price  of  lands  below  the  minimum  of 
twenty  dollars  an  acre  originally  established.     One 
act  authorized  a  reappraisal  of  lands  already  sold 
at  stipulated  prices,  in  order  to  scale  the  prices  down 
for  the  benefit  of  the  purchaser.     It  was  pleaded, 
and  doubtless  with  some  truth,   that  the  financial 
disasters  of  1837  and  the  years  immediately  following 

[78] 


COMMEMORATIVE     ORATION,     1887 


made  it  diflScult,  if  not  impossible,  for  most  pur- 
chasers to  fulfil  their  contracts  at  that  time.  None 
the  less  the  calamity  to  the  University  treasury  was 
most  serious.  We  can  see  now  that  it  would  have 
been  far  better  for  the  University  and  perfectly  just 
to  the  purchasers  to  extend  the  time  of  payment, 
but  not  to  reduce  the  price.  The  general  result  of 
the  management  of  our  lands  has  been  that,  instead 
of  obtaining  for  them  the  sum  of  $921,000,  which  at 
twenty  dollars  an  acre  Mr.  Pierce  in  his  first  report 
showed  they  would  bring,  they  have  yielded 
$547,897.51,  and  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  acres 
remain  unsold.  It  is  not  easy  to  guess  how  much 
more  the  Toledo  lands  would  have  added  to  our 
fund,  if  they  had  been  retained  for  some  years,  but 
certainly  some  hundreds  of  thousands  of  dollars. 
Still,  we  may  at  least  temper  our  regret  at  the  sac- 
rifice which  was  made  by  remembering  that  no  other 
one  of  the  five  States  formed  out  of  the  Northwest 
Territory  made  the  land  grant  of  the  United  States 
yield  so  much  to  its  University  as  Michigan  did. 

A  step  taken  by  the  Regents  at  the  very  outset 
was  not  without  its  perils  to  the  University,  though  it 
also  brought  some  needed  help  to  the  institution  and 
to  the  State.  It  was  the  establishment  of  branches 
in  various  towns.  These  branches  served  as  prepara- 
tory schools  for  the  University  and  as  training  schools 
for  teachers  of  the  primary  or  district  schools. 
They  also  awakened  a  widespread  interest  in  higher 
education,  and  led  ultimately  to  the  establishment 

[79] 


SELECTED      ADDRESSES 


of  tlie  excellent  high  schools  for  which  Michigan  is 
so  distinguished.     But  they  made  so  heavy  a  drain 
on  the  treasury  of  the  University  that  they  seriously 
embarrassed  it,  and  had  they  been  multiplied,  as  was 
at  first   intended,   they   would  have   absorbed   the 
entire   income.     They  did   so   desirable  a  work   in 
our  principal  towns  that  there  grew  up  a  sentiment 
in  favor  of  making  the  support  of  them  the  main 
object  in  the  use  of  the  University  funds.     Governor 
Barry,   in  his  message  in   1842,   affirmed  that  the 
branches  were  to  be  more  useful  than  the  Univer- 
sity, and  that  they  ought  to  be  multiplied,  though 
he  recommended  less  expenditure  on  each.     It  is 
amusing  to  notice  that  they  were  objected  to  by 
some  as  aristocratic  institutions,  since  a  small  tuition 
fee  was  charged.     It  is  now  pretty  generally  agreed 
that  the  support  of  the  branches  was  by  an  illegal 
use  of  the  University  funds.     After  a  few  years  the 
Regents  found  themselves  obliged  to  cut  down  the 
appropriations  to  the  branches,  and  finally  in  1849 
to  refuse  them  altogether.     So  this  peril  of  frittering 
away  the  funds  on  schools,  like  the  earlier  one  of 
frittering   them    away   on    numerous    colleges,    was 
happily  escaped. 

IVIcantime  from  the  date  of  their  accession  to  oflSce 
the  Regents  had  been  busy  in  preparing  to  launch  the 
University.  Their  diflSculties  were  very  great.  The 
management  of  the  lands  was  not  in  their  hands. 
They  could  not  know,  even  approximately,  in  any 
one  year  how  much  money  they  could  rely  on  havmg 

[80] 


COMMEMORATIVE     ORATION,     188  7 


the  next  year.  They  had  no  power  to  appoint  a 
President.  They  had  many  discouragements  in 
unwise  legislation.  But  we  owe  them  a  debt  of 
gratitude  for  the  courage  with  which  they  pushed  on. 
Our  scientific  friends  will  observe  with  interest  that 
among  their  very  first  acts  was  the  purchase  of  the 
Baron  Lederer  collection  of  minerals  and  a  copy 
of  Audubon's  Birds  of  America.  The  very  first 
Professor  they  appointed  was  Dr.  Asa  Gray,  the 
distinguished  botanist,  who,  crowned  with  laurels 
from  both  hemispheres,  is  still  laboring  with  untir- 
ing activity  in  the  freshness  of  a  vigorous  old  age.^ 
He  was  called  to  the  chair  of  Zoology  and  Botany. 
The  Regents  received  in  March,  1838,  a  loan  of  one 
hundred  thousand  dollars  from  the  State,  and  by 
September,  1841,  had  completed  the  erection  of 
four  dwelling  houses,  absurdly  planned  by  a  New 
York  architect,  and  of  the  building  which  now  forms 
the  north  wing  of  this  edifice.  They  first  called  this 
north  wing  the  "main  building,"  and  afterwards,  in 
honor  of  Governor  Mason,  Mason  Hall,  a  name  which 
unfortunately  did  not  remain  in  use.  And  so  now, 
in  September,  1841,  four  years  after  the  Regents  had 
begun  their  work,  we  find  the  doors  of  the  University 
really  open  for  the  reception  of  students,  and  Pro- 
fessor Whiting  and  good  Doctor  Williams,  as  we 
learned  to  call  him  afterwards,  welcoming  to  their 
class-rooms  five  Freshmen  and  one  Sophomore.  It 
is  to  be  presumed  that  there  was  not  much  hazing  of 

1  Dr.  Gray  died  January  30,  1888. 
[811 


SELECTED      ADDRESSES 


Freshmen  by  the  Sophomore  class.  All  but  one  of 
those  six  students  are  still  living,  to  march  at  the 
head  of  the  long  procession  of  graduates  who  have 
since  left  these  halls.  In  spite  of  financial  distresses, 
which  more  than  once  threatened  to  suspend  the 
life  of  the  Institution  in  1841  and  1842,  the  two 
zealous  Professors  bravely  held  on  to  their  work. 
By  1844  the  Faculty  was  enlarged  in  number,  and 
in  1845  the  first  class  of  students,  numbering  eleven, 
was  graduated  with  the  degree  of  Bachelor  of  Arts. 
From  this  time  until  the  accession  of  Dr.  Tappan 
to  the  presidency,  the  work  of  the  college  classes 
was  carried  on  after  the  methods  and  in  the  spirit  of 
the  typical  New  England  colleges.  All  colleges  of 
standing,  except  the  University  of  Virginia,  were  so 
conducted.  The  Professors  were  men  of  creditable 
attainments  and  were  faithful  to  their  duties.  The 
substantial  success  of  the  men  whom  they  trained, 
a  good  proportion  of  whom  have  rendered  eminent 
services  in  various  professions,  is  the  best  testimony 
to  the  excellence  of  the  instruction  they  gave.  But 
the  number  of  pupils  was  small.  The  maximum 
number  during  that  period  was  eighty-nine,  reached 
in  1847-8.  From  that  time,  owing  no  doubt  to  the 
suspension  of  the  branches,  the  attendance  declined. 
In  1850  the  report  of  the  Board  of  Visitors  states 
that  only  fifty  students  were  actually  in  attendance, 
and  inquires  with  earnestness  why,  when  the  tuition 
is  free,  students  are  not  attracted  in  larger  numbers 
to   the  University.     After   discussing   the  facts,   it 

[82] 


COMMEMORATIVE     ORATION,      1887 


concludes  that  the  reasons  of  the  lack  of  prosperity 
are  the  lack  of  a  President,  a  want  of  unity  in  the 
Faculty,  and  the  presence  of  Professors  chosen  on 
other  grounds  than  those  of  fitness.  This  last 
remark  evidently  refers  to  the  policy  which  had  . 
been  followed  of  endeavoring  to  distribute  the  \ 
professorships  among  the  several  religious  denomi- 
nations. 

Meantime,  though  the  work  of  the  college  was  so 
limited,  the  Regents  had  not  lost  sight  of  the  broad 
plan  which  was  originally  contemplated  for  the  Uni- 
versity. In  1847  they  gave  careful  consideration  to 
the  subject  of  establishing  Medical  and  Law  Depart- 
ments. The  result  was  that  in  1850  the  Medical 
Department  was  opened  in  the  building  which,  much 
enlarged,  still  accommodates  it,  and  a  class  exceeding 
in  number  the  students  in  the  Literary  Department 
was  in  attendance  during  the  first  year.  The  ser- 
vices of  Dr.  Zina  Pitcher,  who  had  been  on  the 
Board  since  the  organization  of  the  University, 
though  valuable  in  every  way,  were  of  special  value 
to  the  Medical  Department  at  this  time  and  until 
his  death.  That  Department  speedily  took  that 
rank  which  it  has  ever  since  maintained,  among 
the  leading  medical  colleges  of  the  country.  Like 
the  Literary  Department,  it  has  been  fortunate  in 
retaining  in  its  chairs  for  more  than  a  generation 
at  least  two  of  its  accomplished  teachers.  Palmer 
and  Ford,  whom  hundreds  of  their  grateful  pupils 
delight   to   greet   here   to-day.     The   graduates   of 

[83] 


SELECTED      ADDRESSES 


the  early  classes  have  special  cause  for  thanksgiving 
in  the  fact  that  three  of  the  Professors  who  opened 
the  school  are  still  living  to  receive  their  gratulations. 
Dr.  Giinn,  Dr.  Douglas,  and  Dr.  Allen. 

The  Constitution  adopted  by  the  State  in  1851 
provided  for  the  election  in  that  year  of  Regents  by 
popular  vote.  The  new  Board  at  once  addressed 
itself  to  the  task  of  finding  a  President.  The  choice 
fell  upon  Dr.  Henry  Philip  Tappan.  No  better  man 
could  have  been  selected  for  the  special  exigencies  of 
the  University  at  that  time.  A  man  of  commanding 
presence,  of  marked  intellectual  endowments  already 
proved  by  the  authorship  of  books  which  had  won  for 
him  reputation  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic,  of  large 
familiarity  with  the  history  of  education,  of  experi- 
ence as  a  college  teacher,  of  broad  and  well-defined 
views  on  university  policy,  of  the  warmest  sympathy 
with  Crary  and  Pierce  and  the  founders  of  this  Insti- 
tution in  their  admiration  of  the  Prussian  system, 
of  remarkable  power  of  impressing  others  with  his 
views  whether  by  public  speech  or  by  private  inter- 
course, he  took  up  the  work  here  with  a  vigor  and 
earnestness  that  speedily  kindled  in  all  hearts  the 
hope  of  that  brilliant  success  which  soon  crowned  his 
labors.  He  confessed  that  he  was  attracted  to 
Michigan  by  the  broad  views  embodied  in  the  plan 
of  the  State  system  of  education.  In  the  spirit  of 
that  plan  he  brought  to  his  work  the  most  generous 
conception  of  the  function  of  the  University,  and 
he   soon   awakened   in   the   public   an   enthusiastic 

[84] 


COMMEMORATIVE     ORATION,     1887 


sympathy  with  his  own  large  ideas.  He  aroused 
people  to  an  appreciation  of  the  fact  that  our  State 
system  of  education  could  not  reach  its  proper 
development  without  a  well-equipped  university  as 
its  heart  to  send  the  energies  of  its  life  down  through 
the  schools. 

Not  yet  have  we  filled  in  the  sketch   which   he 
drew   of   the   ideal  university    for   Michigan.     He 
maintained   that   a  real   university    ought   to   give 
instruction  not  only  in  the  studies  ordinarily  pursued 
in  colleges  in  that  day,  but  also  in  the  fine  arts,  in 
agriculture,  in  the  industrial  arts,  in  pedagogy,  and 
in  the  preparation  for  the  so-called  learned  profes- 
sions.    He  desired  that  students  should  have  gradu- 
ated in  the  Literary  Department  before  they  were 
admitted  to  the  professional  schools.     Abandoning 
the  idea   which   had   prevailed   that  professorships 
should  be  distributed  among  the  various  religious 
denominations,  he  maintained  that  no  sectarian  or 
political    tests    should    be    considered    in    making 
appointments,   but  only  character  and  moral  and 
intellectual  fitness.     By  his  counsel  the  dormitory 
system  was  abandoned,   and  the  vast  sum   which 
would  have  been  needed  to  provide  lodging  houses 
for  students  was  saved,  and  the  students  to  their 
advantage  have  for  the  most  part  enjoyed  the  whole- 
some influence  of  the  home  life  of  our  citizens.     He 
stoutly   opposed   the   separation   and   dispersion   of 
the  various  parts  of  the  University,  and  maintained 
that  the  very  idea  of  a  university  supposes  the  con- 

[85] 


SELECTED      ADDRESSES 


centration  of  books,  apparatus,  and  learned  men  in 
one  place.  He  looked  forward  to  a  day  when  the 
merely  gymnasial  work  should  give  place  here  to 
genuine  university  work.  These  and  other  kindred 
ideas,  now  familiar  to  us,  but  new  to  many  in  those 
early  days,  Dr.  Tappan  advanced  and  vindicated 
with  a  stirring  eloquence  before  the  Legislature, 
before  the  students  and  Faculties,  and  before  the 
public,  until  they  were  understood  and  widely 
appreciated. 

With  equal  zeal  he  pushed  the  internal  develop- 
ment of  the  University.     He  added  to  the  Faculty 
a     corps    of    brilliant    scholars,    two     of     whom, 
Dr.  Winchell  and  Dr.  Frieze,  abide  with  us  even 
now,  and  have  builded  their  fruitful  lives  into  the 
life  of  the  University.     He  introduced  the  scientific 
and  the  partial  course  of  instruction  to  afford  facilities 
to  those  who  did  not  wish  to  pursue  the  classical 
curriculum.     He  secured  funds  for  the  astronomical 
observatory,  which,  under  Briinnow  and  later  under 
Watson,  was  destined  to  win  so  much  renown  for 
the  University.     A  new  life,  a  new  enthusiasm  were 
awakened  throughout  the  whole  institution.     Both 
teachers  and  students  were  full  of  zeal  and  of  hope. 
They   caught  the  spirit   and   re-echoed  everywhere 
the  stimulating  words  of  the  new  leader,  until  every 
one  not  only  saw  that  a  real  University  was  growing 
here  with  unprecedented  vigor,  but  was  full  of  faith 
that   a   much   more   brilliant   development   in   the 
near  future  was  secured.     This  ardent  faith   was 

[86] 


COMMEMORATIVE     ORATION,     1887 

itself  a  guaranty  of  the  success  for  which  it  looked. 
I  doubt  if  in  the  sixth  decade  of  this  century  any  other 
university  in  the  land  was  administered  in  so  broad, 
free,  and  generous  a  spirit  as  this  was  under  Dr. 
Tappan  and  his  large-minded  colleagues  in  the 
Faculties.  Most  of  the  colleges  were  in  bondage  to 
old  traditions.  Dr.  Wayland,  with  his  herculean 
strength,  rose  up  in  rebellion  against  exclusive  devo- 
tion to  the  old  ways  under  which  the  colleges  were 
pining  away,  and  made  an  effort  for  larger  freedom 
of  action  even  before  Dr.  Tappan  came  here.  But 
his  effort  was  only  partially  successful  and  for  a 
limited  time.  But  this  University  having  once 
started  upon  the  new  path,  blazed  out  by  Dr. 
Tappan  and  his  associates,  never  once  faltered  in 
its  progress,  but  has  gone  bravely  on  to  larger  and 
larger  successes. 

In  1859  occurred  that  important  event  in  the  his- 
tory of  the  University,  the  opening  of  the  Law 
School.  Perhaps  never  was  an  American  law  school 
so  fortunate  in  its  first  Faculty,  composed  of  those 
renowned  teachers,  Charles  I.  Walker,  James  V. 
Campbell,  and  Thomas  M.  Cooley,  all  living,  thank 
God,  to  take  part  in  this  celebration,  and  to  receive 
the  loving  salutations  of  the  more  than  three  thou- 
sand graduates  who,  as  learners,  have  sat  delighted 
at  their  feet.  The  fame  which  these  men  and  those 
afterwards  associated  with  them  gave  to  the  school 
was  a  source  of  great  strength  to  the  whole  Univer- 
sity.     It  is  a  significant  fact,  deserving  of  special 

[  87  ] 


SELECTED      ADDRESSES 


recognition,  that  the  estabhshment  of  the  Medical 
and  Law  Schools  contributed  very  much  to  the  rapid 
increase  in  the  number  of  students  in  the  Literary 
Department.  Every  graduate  of  each  of  those 
schools  became  instrumental  in  turning  hither  the 
steps  of  students  who  desired  collegiate  learning. 

When  Dr.  Tappan  closed  his  official  career,  after 
eleven  years  of  service,  the  Literary  Department 
had  more  than  quadrupled  the  number  of  students 
it  had  on  his  accession  to  office,  the  Medical  Depart- 
ment had  two  hundred  and  fifty  students,  the  Law 
School  one  hundred  and  thirty-four,  the  total  attend- 
ance was  six  hundred  and  fifty-two,  and  the  Univer- 
sity was  recognized  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic  as 
a  great  and  worthy  school  of  liberal  learning. 

Wliile  in  a  certain  very  just  and  emphatic  sense 
the  University  rests  on  foundations  laid  seventy 
years  ago,  and,  in  the  form  in  which  we  know  it,  has 
been  builded  on  the  lines  traced  during  the  adminis- 
tration of  the  first  President,  under  the  wise  and 
tactful  direction  of  his  successor.  President  Haven, 
it  moved  on  rapidly  in  its  career  of  prosperity. 
Additions  were  made  to  the  observatory,  to  the 
medical  building,  and  to  the  chemical  laboratory. 
A  course  in  Pharmacy  and  the  so-called  Latin  and 
Scientific  course  were  established.  The  number  of 
students  increased  rapidly,  until  in  1866-7  it  reached 
twelve  hundred  and  fifty-five.  Dr.  Haven's  genial 
and  conciliatory  temperament,  his  felicity  of  address, 
his  versatile  adaptability,  and  his  broad  and  gener- 

[88] 


COMMEMORATIVE     ORATION,     1887 

ous  theories  of  education  won  favor  for  himself  and 
for  the  University.  To  the  great  regret  of  students, 
Faculties,  Regents,  and  the  public,  he  resigned  after 
a  brief  administration  of  six  years. 

During  the  two  years  in  which  Dr.  Frieze  occupied 
the  executive  chair,  two  most  important  measures 
were  adopted,  which  broadened  very  much  the 
influence  of  the  University.  These  were  the  ad- 
mission of  women  to  all  Departments  and  the 
establishment  of  the  system  by  which  students 
are  on  certain  conditions  received  from  high  schools 
without  special  examination.  In  respect  to  both 
of  these  measures  we  may  say  that  our  experience 
of  seventeen  years  has  justified  most,  if  not  all, 
the  expectations  of  those  who  advocated  them,  and 
has  removed  the  doubts  and  fears  of  those  who 
opposed  them  or  who  supported  them  with  hesitancy. 
Hundreds  of  women  have  availed  themselves  of  the 
privileges  offered  them  here  and  have  gone  forth, 
several  of  them  to  foreign  lands  as  missionary 
teachers  or  missionary  physicians,  many  to  various 
parts  of  our  country  as  teachers  in  high  schools, 
academies,  and  colleges,  and  the  rest  to  those  various 
duties,  whether  in  professional  careers,  oflScial  posi- 
tions, or  in  domestic  life,  which  women  of  culture 
are  fitted  to  discharge.  The  success  of  the  experi- 
ment of  admitting  women  to  this  Institution  was 
very  influential  in  opening  to  them  the  doors  of 
many  colleges  in  this  country,  and  was  not  without 
effect  abroad. 

[89  1 


SELECTED      ADDRESSES 


The  establishment  of  the  "diploma  relation  with 
the  high  schools"  was  one  of  the  most  important 
steps  ever  taken  to  bring  unity  into  the  public 
school  system  of  this  State.  Superintendent  Pierce 
had  in  his  first  report  wisely  urged  that  all  grades 
of  schools  should  be  equally  under  the  care  of  the 
State  and  supported  by  it.  He  was  strenuous  for 
the  organization  of  the  branches  of  the  University, 
so  that  high  school  education  might  be  furnished  in 
them  and  teachers  might  be  prepared  for  the  primary 
schools.  His  only  mistake  was  in  throwing  upon 
the  University  fund  the  expense  of  this  secondary 
school  work,  when  it  would  have  been  wise  to  provide 
for  it  at  least  in  part  from  the  common  school  funds. 
The  branches  having  finally  been  severed  from  the 
University,  the  union  schools  or  high  schools  grew 
up  as  separate,  local  organizations,  and  not  as  an 
organic  part  of  one  system.  The  voluntary  estab- 
lishment of  the  "diploma  connection"  between 
the  University  and  the  high  schools  set  up  a  quasi- 
organic  relation  between  them,  bridged  over  the 
space  which  had  separated  them,  and  so  left  the  road 
plain  and  open  for  every  child  to  proceed  easily 
from  the  primary  school  up  through  the  high  schools 
and  through  the  University.  There  is  therefore 
now  a  substantial,  if  not  in  all  respects  a  perfectly 
formal,  unity  in  the  educational  system  of  the  State. 
The  plan  adopted  here,  which  was  an  adaptation 
to  our  needs  of  the  German  method  of  receiving 
students  from  the  gymnasium  into  the  university, 

[90] 


COMMEMORATIVE     ORATION,      1887 

has  been  widely  imitated  both  in  the  East  and  in 
the  West,  though  sometimes  with  modifications 
which  have  diminished  its  efficiency. 

During  recent  years,  with  an  ever  enlarging  con- 
ception, both  on  the  part  of  the  State  and  of  the 
University,  of  the  functions,  opportunities,  and 
duties  of  this  Institution,  its  development  has  been 
rapid  and  striking.  The  work  of  the  long-established 
Departments  has  been  elevated,  broadened,  and 
enriched,  new  Departments  have  been  added,  com- 
modious buildings  have  been  multiplied,  and  the 
power  of  the  University  has  been  largely  strengthened. 

In  the  Literary  Department  there  has  been  a 
great  increase  in  the  number  and  variety  of  courses 
of  instruction  offered,  the  application  of  laboratory 
methods  to  the  teaching  of  the  sciences  has  become 
general,  the  students  of  engineering  have  been  pro- 
vided with  facilities  for  shopwork,  a  well-adjusted 
elective  system  of  studies  has  been  introduced,  and 
to  advanced  students  large  opportunities  for  spe- 
cializing their  work  have  been  furnished.  These 
measures,  co-operating  with  other  causes,  have 
increased  the  enthusiasm  for  study,  have  brought 
new  stimulation  to  the  teachers,  have  made  the 
relations  of  students  and  teachers  intimate  and 
friendly  to  a  degree  formerly  unknown,  and  have 
brought  the  Department  to  a  most  gratifying  degree 
of  efficiency. 

The  list  of  professional  schools  has  been  enlarged 
by  the  organization  of  the  School  of  Pharmacy,  the 

[91] 


SELECTED      ADDRESSES 


Homoeopathic  Medical  College,  and  the  Dental 
College.  In  these,  as  in  the  older  schools,  the 
requirements  for  admission  and  for  graduation 
have  been  gradually  raised,  so  that  the  education 
imparted  in  the  several  schools  is  more  comprehen- 
sive than  ever  before.  The  number  of  teachers 
and  assistants  now  reaches  eighty-three  and  the 
number  of  students  fifteen  hundred  and  seventy- 
three. 

As  upon  this  glad  day  we  gratefully  trace  the 
remarkable  growth  of  the  University,  we  find  the 
inquiry  constantly  forced  on  our  minds,  to  what  is 
this  wonderful  growth  due?  The  answer  has,  I 
trust,  been  in  some  degree  suggested  in  what  has 
been  said.  But  it  may  be  well  to  set  forth  more 
sharply  the  causes  of  the  great  development  which 
we  so  rejoice  to  see. 

1.  First  I  would  name  the  broad  conception, 
which  has  for  the  most  part  been  held  with  distinct- 
ness, of  the  function  and  methods  of  a  university. 
The  custodians  and  administrators  of  this  Institution 
have  striven  to  build  on  a  large  and  generous  plan. 
They  have  happily  followed  in  general  the  German 
rather  than  the  English  ideal  of  education,  but  have 
always  aimed  to  adapt  the  plans  to  the  real  wants 
of  our  time  and  our  country.  They  have  filled 
out  the  large  plan  originally  sketched  as  rapidly  as 
the  means  at  their  disposal  would  permit.  With  a 
prudent  courage  in  experimentation  and  innovation 
they   have   introduced   methods   which   have   been 

[92] 


COMMEMORATIVE     ORATION,     1887 

widely  approved  and  imitated  even  by  institutions 
which  were  at  first  severe  in  their  criticisms  of  them. 
This  large  and  free  and  generous  spirit,  in  which 
the  University  has  been  conducted,  has  commended 
itself,  especially  in  the  West,  and  has  been  a  source 
of  great  power. 

2.  The  authorities  of  the  University  have  been 
guided  throughout  its  history  by  the  wise  principle, 
enunciated  early  by  Superintendent  Pierce,  that 
men,  not  bricks  and  mortar,  make  a  university. 
Certainly  there  is  nothing  in  the  beauty  or  elegance 
of  most  of  our  buildings  to  awaken  any  special 
vanity  on  our  part.  But  from  the  opening  of  the 
University  there  has  never  been  a  time  when  the 
Faculties  did  not  contain  able  and  eminent  men, 
and  for  more  than  thirty  years  now  passed  men  of 
national  and  of  European  reputation  have  always 
been  found  giving  instruction  in  these  halls.  The 
marvel  is  that  with  their  meagre  salaries  such  men 
have  been  willing  to  remain  here.  But  there  has 
been  among  them  an  esjprit  du  corps,  an  appreciation 
of  the  largeness  of  the  work  which  falls  to  this  Uni- 
versity, an  enjoyment  of  its  free  spirit,  and  a 
consequent  devotion  to  its  interests,  which  have  for- 
tunately retained  some  of  our  most  gifted  teachers 
in  the  face  of  the  strongest  pecuniary  temptations 
to  go  elsewhere.  The  fame  of  these  faithful  teachers 
has  been  an  inestimable  endowment  of  the  Univer- 
sity, and  has  drawn  pupils  from  every  State  and 
Territory  of  the  Union  and   from   every  continent 

[93  1 


SELECTED      ADDRESSES 


of  the  globe.  May  the  day  never  come  when  the 
governing  body  of  this  Institution  shall  lose  sight 
of  the  vital  truth  that  it  is  on  the  ability  and  attain- 
ments of  the  teacher  more  than  on  any  or  on  all 
things  else  that  the  fortune  of  the  University  depends. 
3.  It  has  doubtless  been  conducive  to  the  growth 
of  the  University  that  the  founders  organized  it  on 
the  plan  of  bringing  education  within  the  reach  of 
the  poor.  The  early  settlers  of  the  State,  though 
many  of  them  were  well  educated,  were  generally 
men  of  limited  means.  They  appreciated  intellec- 
tual training  and  desired  that  it  should,  if  possible, 
be  secured  by  their  children.  They  knew  that  the 
rich  could  send  their  sons  away  to  Eastern  colleges. 
But  if  college  education  was  to  be  gained  by  their 
sons,  it  must  be  at  small  cost.  They  therefore 
naturally  and  wisely  provided  that  instruction 
should  be  afforded  at  a  nominal  rate.  This  was  a 
most  democratic  and  salutary  plan.  There  could 
have  been  no  greater  misfortune  to  this  State  than 
such  an  organization  of  the  higher  education  as 
should  have  made  it  accessible  to  the  rich  alone. 
Society  is  now  sufficiently  shaken  by  the  antagonisms 
and  frictions  between  the  rich  and  the  poor.  But 
suppose  we  had  the  poor  hopelessly  doomed  to 
comparative  ignorance  by  the  costliness  of  advanced 
education  to  the  pupils,  and  so  had  society  divided 
into  two  classes,  the  one  rich  and  highly  educated, 
the  other  poor  and  with  limited  education  or  none, 
how   much   more   fearful   would   be   their   conflicts 

[94] 


COMMEMORATIVE     ORATION,      1887 

when  they  met  in  the  shock  of  battle!  But  here  the 
rich  and  the  poor  have  always  sat  side  by  side  in 
the  class-room.  They  have  associated  on  terms  of 
perfect  equality.  Brains  and  character  have  alone 
determined  which  should  be  held  in  the  higher 
esteem.  There  is  no  other  community  in  the  world 
so  wholesomely  democratic  as  one  like  our  body 
of  University  students.  The  whole  policy  of  the 
administration  of  this  University  has  been  to  make 
life  here  simple  and  inexpensive,  and  so  a  large 
proportion  of  our  students  have  always  supported 
themselves  in  whole  or  in  large  part  by  their  own 
earnings.  They  have  flocked  hither  in  great  num- 
bers because  they  believed  that  an  excellent  education 
could  be  obtained  here  by  students  of  very  limited 
means.  This  has  always  been,  and  we  are  proud  of 
the  fact,  the  University  of  the  poor.  From  these 
halls  the  boys  born  in  the  log  cabins  of  the  wilderness 
have  gone  forth  armed  with  the  power  of  well-dis- 
ciplined minds  and  characters,  to  fight  their  way  to 
those  brilliant  successes  which  mere  wealth  could 
never  have  achieved,  to  the  foremost  positions  in 
church  and  state. 

4.  We  gladly  recognize  the  fact  that  the  success 
of  the  University  is  largely  due  to  the  eflScient  aid 
of  the  schools  of  the  State.  While  the  University 
has  done  much  to  elevate  the  character  of  the 
schools,  by  sending  them  as  teachers  its  thoroughly 
trained  graduates,  it  is  also  true  that  but  for  the 
hearty  co-operation  of  the  schools,  but  for  the  con- 

[95] 


SELECTED      ADDRESSES 


tinual  and  rapid  improvement  in  their  work,  it 
would  have  been  impossible  for  the  University  to 
push  up  its  standard  of  work  from  decade  to  decade, 
as  it  has  done.  Especially  has  there  been  a  helpful 
improvement  in  the  high  schools  since  the  diploma 
relation  between  them  and  the  University  was 
established.  There  is  now  a  certain  unity  in  the 
scholarly  spirit  of  the  schools  and  that  of  the  Uni- 
versity which  is  serviceable  to  the  University  and, 
we  believe,  to  the  schools.  But  without  this  fine 
spirit  in  the  schools  the  University  would  be  seriously 
crippled.  The  child  who  enters  the  primary  school 
is  now  stimulated  to  hope  for  the  highest  education, 
since  the  way  lies  open,  straight,  and  clear  from  his 
school-house  to  the  very  doors  of  the  University, 
the  way  which  has  been  trodden  by  many  as  poor 
and  as  humble  as  the  poorest  and  humblest  in  the 
rudest  school-house  in  the  Northern  woods. 

5.  The  loyalty  and  the  success  of  our  graduates  of 
all  Departments  have  also  been  most  helpful  to  our 
rapid  growth.  More  than  eight  thousand  in  num- 
ber, they  have  gone  to  all  parts  of  this  land  and  to 
foreign  lands,  speaking  with  loving  praise  the  name 
of  their  Alma  Mater,  and  illustrating  in  their  lives 
the  value  of  the  training  they  had  received  under 
our  roof.  In  the  great  struggle  for  the  nation's 
existence  they  did  their  full  part,  and  some  of  the 
choicest  and  best,  whose  names  are  starred  on  our 
General  Catalogue,  poured  out  their  young  lives  on 
Southern    battlefields.     Our    graduates    are    found 

[96] 


COMMEMORATIVE     ORATION,      1887 

engaged  in  every  worthy  pursuit.  By  their  achieve- 
ments they  are  commending  their  dear  mother  not 
only  for  the  mental  disciphne  she  gave  them,  but 
for  the  brave,  earnest,  manly  spirit  which  by  her 
free  methods  and  by  the  character  of  her  teachers 
she  has  nourished  in  them.  The  sap  and  vigor 
of  this  Western  life  have  always  characterized 
this  young  University  and  the  great  body  of  her 
alumni,  and  so  the  earnest,  ingenuous  youth  of  the 
West  have  come  here  almost  instinctively  to  find 
a  congenial  home.  If  sound  learning  has  been  im- 
parted here,  we  believe  that  we  may  yet  more 
emphatically  claim  that  manliness  of  character  has 
always  been  developed  in  these  halls. 

While  studying  to-day  the  history  and  develop- 
ment of  this  Institution,  it  is  pleasant  to  remember 
that  it  has  not  been  without  a  creditable  influence 
upon  other  colleges  and  universities.  Every  good 
institution  of  learning  by  its  life  helps  every  other 
good  one.  And  while  in  the  presence  of  so  many 
honored  delegates  from  other  schools  of  learning, 
who  rejoice  us  by  their  presence  at  this  hour,  we 
gratefully  acknowledge  the  inspiration  we  have 
received  from  our  sister  institutions,  we  may  be 
permitted  to  recall  the  testimony  which  some  of 
them  have  borne  to  us  of  the  assistance  they  have 
found  in  our  experiences.  Particularly  have  the 
State  universities  which  have  been  established  in 
all  the  Western  and  in  some  of  the  Southwestern 
States  builded  to  a  considerable  degree  on  the  model 

[97] 


SELECTED      ADDRESSES 


of  this  University.  The  same  causes  that  contributed 
to  our  prosperity  are  now  crowning  them  with  success. 
Whatever  perils  may  have  beset  any  of  them  in 
their  earlier  days,  their  existence  is  now  assured. 
Not  infrequently  they  have  turned  hither  for  counsel, 
and  naturally  enough  have  often  adopted  methods 
which  had  here  been  proved  wise.  As  we  see  these 
State  universities  attaining  to  higher  usefulness 
and  eminence  and  rejoice  in  their  progress,  we  think 
it  not  presumptuous  to  believe  that  one  of  the 
useful  services  which  this  Institution  has  rendered 
is  found  in  the  guidance  and  help  which  she  has 
providentially  been  able  to  furnish  to  these  sister 
institutions  of  the  West. 

In  the  bright  history  of  this  Institution  we  joy- 
fully read  a  happy  augury  for  her  future.  With 
such  rapid  strides  has  she  come  forward  into  the 
front  rank  of  American  universities  that  we  in- 
stinctively look  for  continued  and  brilliant  progress 
in  the  second  half  century  of  life  upon  which  she 
is  now  entering.  We  often  delight  om-selves  with 
imagining  what  the  next  generation  will  find  here 
when  the  celebration  of  the  centennial  of  the  Uni- 
versity shall  be  held. 

While  we  do  not  suffer  ourselves  to  doubt  that 
the  development  of  the  University  is  to  continue, 
we  do  well  to  keep  in  mind,  even  in  these  days  of 
exuberant  joy,  the  essential  condition  of  her  prosperity. 
That  condition  is  the  hearty  sympathy  and  support 
of   the  State  of  ^Michigan.     The  proceeds  of  the 

[98] 


COMMEMORATIVE     ORATION,      1887 

United  States  land  grant  and  the  fees  of  students 
no  longer  suffice  to  meet  the  current  expenses  of 
the  University.  We  are  obliged  to  have  constant 
aid  from  the  treasury  of  the  State.  If  the  Uni- 
versity is  to  grow  under  the  present  organization, 
that  aid  must  be,  not  rapidly  perhaps,  but  steadily 
and  surely,  increased.  Should  that  aid  be  withheld, 
the  Institution  would  at  once  shrink  from  a  great 
university  with  a  cosmopolitan  constituency  and  a 
cosmopolitan  fame  to  a  local  school  with  a  limited 
constituency  and  a  fading  reputation.  The  vital 
question  therefore  is,  if  the  University  persists  in 
her  old  habit  of  growing,  will  this  Commonwealth 
stand  by  her  and  meet  her  pressing  needs .f^.  All 
these  fifty  years  Cassandras  have  not  been  wanting 
who  have  predicted  that  the  State  would  in  weariness 
abandon  the  University.  Happily  these  predictions 
have  never  been  fulfilled.  Never  before,  I  believe, 
was  the  University  so  strongly  intrenched  in  the 
affections  of  the  State.  But  the  sons  and  daughters 
and  friends  of  the  University  may  even  in  their 
exhilarating  celebrations  of  this  week  lay  it  soberly 
to  heart  that  the  prevalence  of  an  intelligent  public 
opinion  upon  the  value  of  the  Institution  is  abso- 
lutely essential  to  her  perpetuity,  and  that  on  them 
it  mainly  depends  whether  such  a  public  opinion, 
appreciative  and  sympathetic,  shall  prevail.  The 
great  majority  of  our  citizens,  the  great  majority 
of  our  legislators,  never  see  the  University.  They 
must  know  of  the  scope  and  worth  of  its  work  and 

[99] 


SELECTED      ADDRESSES 


of  the  considerable  sums  needed  to  maintain  it, 
even  on  our  most  economical  methods,  mainly  as 
they  learn  all  this  from  you.  In  a  very  just  sense 
and  in  a  large  degree,  then,  the  fortunes  of  the  Uni- 
versity are  committed  to  your  hands.  That  you 
will  be  faithful  to  this  great  trust  we  do  not  for  a 
moment  question.  Therefore  we  confidently  cherish 
the  hope  that  this  great  and  prosperous  Common- 
wealth will,  with  just  pride  in  the  renown  and  use- 
fulness of  this  school,  continue  in  all  the  years  to 
come  to  meet  her  reasonable  requests  for  support. 

The  munificent  gifts  which  during  the  last  few 
years  we  have  received  from  private  benefactors 
also  encourage  us  to  believe  that  the  generosity  of 
the  State  will  be  supplemented  by  that  of  large- 
hearted  individuals.  There  is  abundant  room  for 
the  most  appropriate  exercise  of  private  beneficence. 
We  cannot  doubt  that  some  of  our  citizens,  especially 
some  of  our  alumni,  will  wish  to  leave  here  memorials 
of  their  abiding  interest  in  the  University. 

And  so,  full  of  that  faith  in  the  future  growth  of  the 
University,  which  is  begotten  by  the  contemplation 
of  her  inspiring  history  of  fifty  years,  by  our  confi- 
dence in  the  appreciative  generosity  of  this  great, 
wealthy,  and  growing  Commonwealth,  and  by  our 
assurance  of  the  loyalty  and  devotion  of  her  sons  and 
daughters,  with  joyful  enthusiasm,  with  abounding 
hope,  with  loving  hearts,  we  bid  her  Godspeed  as 
she  enters  now  upon  the  second  half  century  of  her 
life. 

[100  1 


IV 
STATE   UNIVERSITIES 


JUNE  4,   1895 

AN   ADDRESS   DELIVERED   AT   THE   DEDICATION   OF 

ACADEMIC   HALL  AND   THE   NEW   DEPARTMENT 

BUILDINGS  OF  THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  MISSOURI 

The  substance   of  this   Address   was   also   given   on   anniver- 
sary  occasions   at   the   State    Universities   of  Iowa, 
Nebraska,  Kansas,  Minnesota,  Illinois,  and  Ohio 


IV 
STATE    UNIVERSITIES 


In  response  to  your  courteous  invitation  to  me  to 
address  you,  it  has  seemed  to  me  that  I  might  well 
ask  you  to  consider  what,  in  view  of  its  organization, 
are  the  principal  difficulties  which  the  American  State 
university  has  to  encounter,  what  advantages  it  has 
to  commend  it,  and  what  needs  must  be  supplied  to 
insure  its  success. 

1.  In  our  present  study  of  State  universities  it 
will  be  convenient  first  to  inquire  what  have  been 
their  chief  embarrassments. 

First,  The  business  of  disposing  of  the  lands 
granted  by  the  United  States  for  their  support 
has  in  many  cases  been  badly  managed,  so  that  a 
large  part  of  the  endowment  has  been  lost.  In 
the  early  history  of  several  of  the  States,  to  which 
grants  for  universities  were  made,  the  people  did 
not  appreciate  either  the  possible  importance  or 
the  future  needs  of  a  university,  and  therefore  the 
proper  disposition  of  the  lands  was  not  secured. 
It  is  not  surprising  that  such  was  the  fact.  In 
some  cases  errors  of  judgment,  in  others,  it  is  to 
be  feared,  the  greed  of  speculators,  who  outwitted 
trustees  and  regents,  caused  lamentable  sacrifices. 
The  lesson  should  not  be  lost  to  the  States  whose 
lands  are  still  within  control. 

[103] 


SELECTED      ADDRESSES 


If  we  may  say  so  without  seeming  ungrateful, 
we  may  express  our  regret  that  the  General  Govern- 
ment, when  making  grants  of  lands  for  universities, 
had  not  given  more  of  what  it  was  then  so  easy  to 
give.  Doubtless  when  the  first  grants  were  made 
at  the  beginning  of  the  century,  of  two  townships 
to  each  university,  that  was  believed  to  be  a  very 
generous  endowment.  And  so  it  was  for  the  main- 
tenance of  universities  according  to  the  standards 
then  prevailing.  But  the  progress  and  elevation  of 
the  higher  education  have  rendered  necessary  much 
larger  revenues  for  the  support  of  a  university  than 
the  proceeds  from  the  sales  of  the  lands  bestowed 
can  furnish. 

Second.  A  very  common  criticism  on  the  organ- 
ization of  universities  by  the  State  is  that  political 
parties  will  interfere  with  them  from  partisan  motives 
and  seek  to  use  them  in  furtherance  of  party  ends. 
Theoretically,  that  seems  possible,  but  in  fact,  so 
far  as  I  know,  the  good  sense  of  our  people  has 
prevented  this,  as  it  has  prevented  such  interference 
with  the  common  schools.  I  think  it  may  safely 
be  predicted  that  any  party  which  shall  attempt  to 
use  either  the  universities  or  the  common  schools  for 
a  partisan  purpose  will  lose,  as  it  deserves  to  lose, 
popular  approbation. 

It  is  true,  however,  that  there  is  a  certain  peril 
to  the  State  university  from  the  close  relation  which 
it  holds  to  the  public.  If  important  differences  arise 
within  its  governing  board  or  its  Faculties  concerning 

[  104] 


STATE     UNIVERSITIES 


a  line  of  policy,  or  concerning  the  fitness  of  president 
or  professors  for  their  positions,  the  discussion 
becomes  more  widespread  and  general  and  often 
more  impassioned  than  it  does  when  similar  questions 
are  before  a  close  corporation  which  is  practically 
responsible  to  nobody  for  its  actions.  Such  political 
discussions  of  university  questions  are  often  con- 
ducted in  large  part  by  men  who  are  fitted  neither 
by  reading  nor  by  experience  to  speak  as  experts, 
and  whose  debates  are  therefore  more  heated  than 
wise.  No  doubt  it  is  possible  to  cite  cases  in  which 
serious  harm  has  been  done  by  dragging  universities 
and  teachers  into  the  public  arena  to  be  assailed  by 
those  who  were  quite  incompetent  to  pass  judgment 
on  the  question  at  issue,  or  were  disposed  to  display 
their  gladiatorial  skill  simply  from  the  malignant 
ambition  to  pull  prominent  men  down  from  honorable 
positions,  and  to  cater  to  that  base  but  too  common 
desire  to  see  them  bespattered  with  abuse. 

But  after  all,  while  temporary  harm  and  in  some 
cases  injustice  to  worthy  persons  has  resulted  from 
this  exposed  and  open  life  of  the  State  university, 
yet  I  believe  that  on  the  whole  the  university,  like 
the  general  administration  of  the  State,  is  the  better 
and  not  the  worse  for  being  to  some  extent  the 
subject  of  public  discussion.  It  is  thus  made  known 
to  the  whole  State.  The  citizens  learn  that  they  have 
a  responsibility  and  an  interest  in  it.  They  cannot 
be  expected  to  bear  taxation  for  its  support  unless 
its  purpose  and  its  management  commend  them- 

[105] 


SELECTED      ADDRESSES 


selves  to  their  favor.  And  therefore  the  more  frankly 
and  fully  its  life  is  laid  bare  to  the  people,  the  better. 
The  thing  it  has  most  to  fear  is  misrepresentation. 
Under  the  fire  of  criticism  and  public  discussion 
the  State  universities  have,  with  some  interruption, 
pretty  steadily  gained,  and  as  a  class  are  more 
vigorous  to-day  than  they  have  ever  been  before. 
ird.   The  State  universities  have  had  to  contend 

ith  a  more  or  less  widespread  impression  that  the 
conditions  of  their  life  are  to  some  extent  unfriendly 
to  the  development  of  a  religious  character  in  the 
students.  Not  a  few  men,  speaking  in  the  interests 
of  denominational  colleges,  have  displayed  a  pretty 
active  zeal  in  disseminating  this  impression.  The 
majority  of  those  who  desire  a  collegiate  education 
for  their  children  prefer  to  have  them  surrounded 
by  influences  which  are  helpful  rather  than  hurtful 
to  their  religious  life.  The  belief  that  such  a  life  is 
discouraged  rather  than  encouraged  at  any  college 
would  be  an  obstacle  to  its  prosperity. 

If  a  State  university  were  open  to  this  charge, 
it  must  be  from  one  or  both  of  two  causes.  It 
might  be  so  because  the  Regents  took  action  which 
justified  the  charge,  or  because  the  Faculties  were 
made  up  of  irreverent  men,  or  from  both  these  causes 
combined.  It  is  said  that  there  is  nothing  in  the 
constitution  of  a  State  university  to  prevent  filling 
the  board  of  regents  with  irreligious  or  even  vicious 
men.  Sticking  to  the  letter  of  the  law,  this  is  true. 
Sticking  to  the  letter  of  the  law,  it  is  equally  true 

[106] 


STATE     UNIVERSITIES 


that  there  is  nothing  to  prevent  us  from  fiUing  the 
judicial  bench  with  rascals.  But,  in  fact,  under  the 
actual  working  of  our  laws,  we  do  elect  or  appoint 
to  the  honorable  and  generally  unrequited  post  of 
regents,  men  who  fairly  represent  the  better  senti- 
ment of  the  State  in  regard  to  morals  and  religion, 
just  as  we  do  generally  elect  to  the  bench  men  fairly 
representing  the  higher  stratum  of  character  and 
talent  of  the  bar.  The  public  sentiment  of  all  our 
States  is  friendly  to  virtue  and  religion,  and  desires 
the  cultivation  of  them  in  the  young  in  a  reasonable 
and  catholic  way,  and  it  will  not  long  sustain  in 
power  as  guardians  of  our  schools  of  learning  those 
who  are  actively  opposed  to  this  sentiment. 

As  to  the  Faculties,  it  may  be  said  without  fear 
of  contradiction  that  they  are  as  a  rule  composed 
of  men  of  exemplary  life  and  of  reverent  spirit. 
Men  of  a  different  make  do  not  generally  incline  to 
teaching  as  a  permanent  calling.  If  they  do,  they 
are  rarely  chosen  to  professorships  in  our  higher 
institutions  of  learning.  A  large  proportion  of  the 
teachers  in  the  State  universities  with  which  I  am 
familiar,  as  in  all  other  American  colleges  and  uni- 
versities, are  always  actively  engaged  in  work  in 
church  and  Sunday  school  and  in  the  religious  meet- 
ings of  students.  I  know  of  no  kind  of  legitimate 
religious  influence  exercised  on  students  by  professors 
in  any  college  which  devout  professors  in  our  State 
universities  may  not  and  do  not  exercise,  unless  an 
exception  be  made  in  respect  to  religious  services, 

[107] 


SELECTED      ADDRESSES 


which  students  are  in  some  colleges  compelled  to 
attend.  And  in  my  opinion  the  compulsory  attend- 
ance on  such  services  of  students  as  old  as  those 
usually  found  in  our  State  universities  is  of  very 
questionable    spiritual    benefit. 

It  is,  however,  true  that  denominational  colleges 
have  one  advantage  over  State  universities  in  attract- 
ing religious  students,  particularly  those  who  intend 
to  study  for  the  ministry.  These  colleges  are 
generally  furnished  w4th  scholarships  endowed  for 
the  special  benefit  of  such  students.  And  further- 
more those  devout  people  who  have  a  particular 
interest  in  the  college  controlled  by  their  denomina- 
tions are  active  in  impressing  candidates  for  the 
ministry  of  their  communion  with  the  belief  that  it 
is  their  duty  to  attend  that  college  rather  than  the 
unsectarian  university.  These  are,  I  think,  the 
main  reasons  why  the  State  universities  do  not 
furnish  so  large  a  relative  number  of  graduates 
to  the  ministry  as  the  denominational  colleges, 
though  they  do  compare  favorably  in  this  regard 
with  some  of  the  larger  Eastern  institutions,  as, 
for  instance,  Yale  and  Harvard. 

But  with  regard  to  the  whole  subject  of  the 
religious  influences  in  and  about  the  State  university, 
I  think  it  is  time  a  frank  and  honest  word  was 
spoken  to  Christian  men.  All  institutions  of  what- 
ever kind  are  in  the  end  controlled  and  managed 
by  the  persons  who  are  interested  in  them  and 
who  take  pains  to  shape  their  policy.     If  all  men 

[108] 


STATE     UNIVERSITIES 


who  have  at  heart  the  dissemination  of  wholesome 
rehgious  influences  in  the  State  hold  themselves 
aloof  from  the  State  universities  and  content  them- 
selves with  criticising  them,  it  may  fairly  be  expected 
that  the  control  of  them  will  fall  into  the  hands  of 
men  of  different  views.  No  one  can  reasonably 
doubt  that  the  State  universities  are  here  to  stay, 
for  good  or  for  ill.  In  accepting  the  United  States 
grants  of  land  for  the  maintenance  of  the  university, 
each  State  has  in  reality  bound  itself  to  support  such 
an  institution.  However,  the  States  in  addition 
have  invested  so  much  money  in  the  plant,  and  so 
strong  a  sentiment  in  favor  of  the  universities  has 
been  created,  that  they  are  certain  to  continue  in 
some  form.  Is  it  not  then  the  part  of  common 
sense  for  all  the  good  men  of  the  State,  however 
interested  any  of  them  may  be  in  the  support  of 
other  colleges,  to  exercise  their  legitimate  influence 
as  citizens  in  determining  the  policy  of  the  univer- 
sity? In  this  prosperous  state,  whose  future  great- 
ness is  assured,  it  is  certain  that  whatever  your 
denominational  colleges  may  do,  there  will  be  work 
enough  for  the  university  to  do  —  much  of  it  work 
which  the  colleges  are  not  likely  to  be  able  to  do. 
See  to  it,  citizens  of  the  State,  that  the  university  is 
sustained  by  the  sympathetic  and  active  interest  of 
all  good  men. 

Fourth.  The  State  universities  have  suffered  from 
a  certain  instability  of  plan  and  purpose.  This  has 
resulted  in  part,  as  in  the  case  of  many  indepen- 

[109] 


SELECTED   ADDRESSES 


dent  agricultural  colleges,  from  our  inexperience  in 
conducting  such  institutions.  But  it  has  also  some- 
times happened  because  one  Legislature  has  given 
the  means  to  establish  some  department  or  some  kind 
of  work  and  the  next  Legislature  has  failed  to  con- 
tinue the  needed  appropriations.  This  uncertainty 
of  plan  is  greatly  to  be  deplored.  It  shakes  the  con- 
fidence of  the  students  and  of  the  public  in  the  wisdom 
of  the  administration.  It  creates  in  the  teachers 
a  kind  of  solicitude  which  is  in  a  high  degree  detri- 
mental to  their  work.  We  have  now  had  experience 
enough  so  that  we  ought  to  be  fairly  agreed  on  what 
is  the  proper  scope  of  the  work  of  the  university. 
We  should  be  careful  in  filling  out  the  broadest  plan 
to  undertake  no  department  or  work  until  there  is 
a  high  probabihty  that  the  time  is  ripe  for  it,  and 
that  it  can  have  a  permanent  support  if  it  proves 
successful.  One  Legislature,  of  course,  cannot  bind 
its  successor  to  continue  its  appropriations.  But 
the  public  mind  may  come  to  be  as  well  settled,  and 
in  most  States  it  is  as  well  settled,  concerning  the 
necessity  of  continuing  certain  kinds  of  university 
work,  as  it  is  concerning  the  necessity  of  continuing 
the  maintenance  of  prisons  and  asylums.  And 
certainly  a  Legislature  may  not  ruthlessly  check  the 
development  of  a  department  which  has  been  begun 
in  good  faith  by  its  predecessor,  and  which  is 
achieving  good  results.  Still,  I  fear  that  this  danger 
cannot  be  wholly  escaped  whenever  a  university  is 
dependent  on  appropriations  renewed  annually  or 

[110] 


STATE     UNIVERSITIES 


biennially  by  Legislatures.  But  it  is  well  enough 
to  speak  plainly  on  this  subject  and  to  remind 
Legislatures  that  this  instability  of  plan  is  a  real  and 
serious  misfortune.  The  best  plan  to  be  devised 
for  securing  this  stability  of  support  is  the  enact- 
ment of  a  law  providing  for  a  tax  of  a  fraction  of  a 
mill  upon  the  property  of  the  State.  Experience 
shows  that  this  tax  law  is  not  hkely  to  be  repealed, 
and,  of  course,  the  sum  increases  as  the  State  grows 
wealthy,  and  so  keeps  pace  in  some  degree  with  the 
increasing  needs  of  a  growing  and  prosperous  uni- 
versity. Laws  of  this  kind  are  now  in  force  in  Ohio, 
Michigan,  Wisconsin,  Minnesota,  Nebraska,  Colo- 
rado, and  California. 

We  have  thus  considered,  and  with  the  utmost 
frankness,  some  of  the  chief  diflSculties  which  have 
thus  far  beset  the  path  of  the  State  universities. 

Let  us  now  consider  some  of  the  advantages  which 
have  accrued  to  State  universities  and  to  the  public 
from  their  peculiar  organization. 

First.  Most  of  these  universities  have  saved  to 
one  if  not  to  two  generations  the  advantages  of  such 
an  education  as  would  otherwise  not  have  been  within 
their  reach.  The  settlers  of  these  Western  States 
were  poor,  but  generally  intelligent  and  fairly  edu- 
cated. Not  a  few  of  them  were  graduates  of  colleges. 
They  appreciated  the  value  of  advanced  education. 
They  desired  it  for  their  children.  But  they  had 
not  the  means  to  send  their  children  to  the  East 
or  to  found  and  maintain  well-equipped  colleges  at 

[111] 


SELECTED      ADDRESSES 


home.  The  national  endowment,  however,  supple- 
mented in  some  cases  by  gifts  of  land  by  the  States, 
sufficed  for  the  founding  of  institutions  of  collegiate 
grade  and  for  the  development  of  them  within  a 
few  years  to  a  strength  which  no  college  dependent 
on  private  benefactions  could  have  reached  for  many 
years.  But  for  the  State  universities  their  children, 
and  perhaps  their  children's  children,  would  have 
looked  in  vain  for  the  help  of  a  college  furnished  for 
the  excellent  and  varied  work  now  done  in  this  and 
other  similar  institutions.  They  have  thus  enabled 
the  poor  to  gain  an  education,  and  in  the  days  when 
these  new  States  have  greatly  needed  educated  men. 
The  few  rich  men  could  easily  have  sent  their  sons 
and  daughters  to  Eastern  colleges.  It  was  of  com- 
paratively little  consequence  to  their  children 
whether  the  State  provided  a  scheme  for  higher  edu- 
cation. But  it  was  of  the  first  consequence  to  the 
children  of  the  hardy  settler  who  was  rescuing  a 
farm  from  the  wilderness  or  the  prairie.  And  it  was 
of  even  greater  consequence  to  the  State  that  its 
population  was  not  divided  sharply  into  two  classes 
—  the  men  rich  and  educated  and  the  men  poor  and 
ignorant.  Whenever  such  a  division  exists  you  have 
all  the  elements  of  discord,  strife,  and  civil  war. 
But  give  the  poor  boy  with  brains  and  character 
an  education  as  good  as  the  rich  boy  can  have  and 
you  need  not  fear  an  undue  ascendancy  of  the  rich. 
The  chances  are,  as  all  history  shows,  that  the  poor 
boy,  the  son  of  the  day-laborer  or  of   the  washer- 

[112  1 


STATE     UNIVERSITIES 


woman,  will  take  the  precedence  of  the  rich  boy, 
whether  in  church  or  in  state.  If  the  contrary  is 
the  fact  in  any  case,  the  rich  boy  deserves  to  lead, 
and  his  leadership  causes  no  heartburnings  or 
conflict. 

'-"'^cond.  The  State  university  crowns  and  com- 
pletes the  public  school  system,  and  by  strengthen- 
ing it  blesses  the  State.  It  is  constantly  exerting  an 
inspiring  and  lifting  power  on  the  public  schools. 
It  does  this  by  furnishing  competent  teachers  for 
the  high  schools.  It  is  a  maxim  of  experienced 
educators  that  a  teacher  ought  to  have  received  a 
more  advanced  education  than  is  given  in  the  school 
which  he  teaches.  Those  high  schools  which  have 
relied  simply  on  their  own  graduates  for  teachers 
have  made  a  grave  mistake.  Such  teachers  cannot, 
as  a  rule,  bring  to  the  school  the  stimulus  which  a 
competent  college  graduate  can  impart.  The  State 
universities  in  most  of  the  Western  States  have 
naturally  come  into  a  closer,  more  nearly  organic 
relation  with  the  schools  than  the  denominational 
college  can  establish.  In  this  State  and  elsewhere  the 
university  has  established  relations  with  the  high 
schools  most  fruitful  of  good  to  the  schools,  as  well 
as  to  the  university.  The  schools  have  been  in- 
cited and  helped  to  larger  and  better  work.  A 
virtual  unity  in  the  State  education  system  has  been 
secured.  The  power  of  this  unity  is  felt  by  the 
youngest  and  humblest  scholar  in  the  most  primary 
school  in  the  state.     Every  child,  even  the  poorest, 

[113] 


SELECTED   ADDRESSES 


knows  that  this  generous  State  has  opened  and  made 
clear  and  easy  to  him  the  way  from  the  modest 
school-house  to  and  through  the  university. 

Who  can  say  in  how  many  souls  this  knowledge 
is  to-day  kindling  an  ambition  and  moulding  a 
purpose  which  shall  give  you  gifted  leaders  in  every 
branch  of  human  activity?  For,  thank  God,  this 
gift  of  genius  is  bestowed  with  no  partial  hand.  It 
is  as  likely  to  be  found  in  the  hut  of  sods  as  in  the 
marble  palace.  And  when  with  your  lower  schools 
you  have  kindled  in  the  heart  of  a  child  the  un- 
quenchable flame  of  a  worthy  ambition  for  larger 
and  richer  intellectual  culture,  are  we  to  starve  his 
soul  on  the  meagre  fare  of  the  common  school.'* 
Will  we  say,  "Thus  far  shalt  thou  go  in  this  di\ane 
quest  after  knowledge,  but  no  farther"?  If  you 
are  thus  to  tantalize  him;  if  you  are  thus  to  fire  his 
holy  passion  and  then  furnish  him  no  means  of  grati- 
fying it,  one  might  almost  say  that  you  had  better 
never  made  him  conscious  of  the  illimitable  powers 
within  him.  At  any  rate  you  can  do  nothing  nobler, 
nothing  more  justifiable  on  the  grounds  of  regard  for 
the  public  good,  nothing  which  will  prove  more 
beneficial  to  your  State  than  to  introduce  him  to 
the  treasures,  the  stimulation,  the  inspiration  of 
a  university  like  this. 

To  reap  the  fullest  benefits  from  its  common 
schools,  the  State  should  crown  them  with  the 
university  and  give  a  unity  and  completeness  to 
the  whole  educational  system.     The  public  schools 

[114] 


STATE     UNIVERSITIES 


find  their  logical  sequence  in  the  university. 
Really  the  same  arguments  which  justify  the  main- 
tenance of  the  public  high  school  justify  the  public 
support  of  the  university.  The  line  which  divides 
them  is  constantly  changing.  The  high  school 
to-day  teaches  branches  which  the  university  taught 
yesterday.  Hardly  any  one  now  advocates  limiting 
pubhc  education  to  the  elementary  branches.  All 
recognize  the  fact  that  society  must  have  a  large 
number  of  men  and  women  whose  education  has 
been  carried  far  beyond  those  branches.  When 
society  has  furnished  such  persons  with  this  advanced 
education,  society  reaps  the  benefits  quite  as  fully 
as  they.  The  advantages  of  such  education  cannot 
be  confined  to  the  possessors  of  it.  The  teacher  and 
the  physician  bless  others  by  their  labors  even  more 
than  they  reward  themselves.  Those  who  have 
gone  forth  from  these  halls  are  returning  to  the 
State  far  more  than  what  their  education  has  cost 
the  State,  by  their  active  and  intelligent  lives,  by 
becoming  centres  of  intellectual  light  and  stimulus 
in  various  parts  of  the  State,  by  their  influence  in 
helping  shape  a  sound  public  opinion,  by  their 
sympathetic  support  of  public  schools,  and  by  all 
the  thousand  ways  in  which  a  person  of  cultivation 
and  character  blesses  the  community  of  which  he  is 
a  part. 

Third.  The  State  university  with  its  compara- 
tively ample  resources  has  not  only  furnished  a 
good  college  education  at  an  earlier  date  than  it 

[115] 


SELECTED      ADDRESSES 


would  otherwise  have  been  secured  in  most  of  our 
Western  States,  but  it  has  furnished  a  greater  variety 
of  instruction  in  the  collegiate  department  and  has 
also  afforded  instruction  in  technical  and  profes- 
sional studies.  Most  of  the  Western  colleges  not 
sustained  by  the  State  have  been  compelled  by  their 
narrow  means  to  do  their  work  with  small  and  over- 
tasked faculties,  and  to  restrict  the  range  and 
variety  of  their  work  more  than  they  could  have 
desired.  The  larger  endowment  of  the  State  uni- 
versities has  enabled  most  of  them  to  make  more 
generous  provision  for  teaching  than  those  colleges, 
to  employ  a  larger  corps  of  well-trained  instructors, 
to  furnish  better  laboratories  and  apparatus  for 
teaching  science  by  the  most  approved  modern 
methods,  to  give  instruction  in  engineering  and  in 
other  applications  of  science  to  the  arts,  and  in 
several  cases  to  establish  schools  of  law,  medicine, 
pharmacy,  and  agriculture.  They  have  thus  brought 
within  reach  of  all  the  citizens  of  the  State  at  a  nomi- 
nal cost  to  them  every  kind  of  higher  education, 
except  theology,  which  is  required  for  the  best  civili- 
zation of  the  age.  They  have  stimulated  the  other 
colleges  and  every  kind  of  institution  of  learning 
to  a  higher  standard  of  attainment  than  they  would 
otherwise  have  reached.  By  co-operation  with  our 
excellent  public  school  system  they  have  almost 
entirely  saved  the  West  from  that  wretched  sham 
which  long  afflicted  the  East,  the  so-called  female 
seminary,  which  gave  girls  the  only  chance  they  had 

[116] 


STATE     UNIVERSITIES 


for  education,  but  which  in  so  many  cases  gave  only 
the  thinnest  veneer  of  an  education. 

In  view  of  what  has  been  accompHshed  by  the 
State  universities  in  their  comparatively  brief  history 
and  of  their  promise  of  much  larger  usefulness  in 
the  future,  have  we  any  words  but  those  of  com- 
mendation for  the  wise  and  good  men  who,  in  laying 
the  foundation  of  these  new  States,  made  generous 
and  far-sighted  provision  for  the  substantially  free 
education  of  every  boy  and  every  girl,  not  only  in 
the  common  school,  but  also  in  the  university?  The 
generations  shall  rise  up  and  call  them  blessed. 
The  States  which  find  in  every  hamlet  and  on  so 
many  farms  men  and  women  with  minds  trained 
for  the  most  intelligent  discharge  of  every  duty  of 
life  and  for  fulfilling  with  wisdom  all  the  responsi- 
bilities of  citizenship  will  ever  gratefully  remember 
that  through  the  provision  of  the  fathers  they  have 
come  to  realize  the  Platonic  ideal  of  states,  in  which 
philosophers  are  kings.  Not  wells  flowing  with  oil, 
nor  mines  teeming  with  silver  and  gold,  nor  plains 
covered  with  flocks  and  herds  so  enrich  a  state  as 
noble  men  and  noble  women,  equipped  by  training 
and  culture  to  meet  all  the  demands  and  high  oppor- 
tunities of  our  Christian  civilization.  That  the 
State  university  is  helping  in  a  conspicuous  degree 
to  make  her  sons  and  daughters  such  men  and  such 
women  must  be  its  abiding  glory,  of  which  it  cannot 
be  robbed. 

Fourth.  Even  an  institution  which  is  rendering  so 
[117] 


SELECTED      ADDRESSES 


great  and  useful  a  service  as  the  State  university 
can  succeed  in  its  beneficent  work  only  in  case  the 
conditions  of  success  are  furnished.  It  has  certain 
inevitable  needs,  which  must  be  supplied.  Let  us 
see  what  its  principal  needs  are. 

1.  Its  affairs  must  be  well  administered  by  its 
board  of  curators,  its  chief  executive  oflBcer,  and  its 
faculties.  This  may  seem  a  commonplace  remark. 
But  an  explanation  of  it  will  relieve  it  of  its  common- 
place aspect.  I  mean  to  say  that  the  proper  admin- 
istration of  a  university  is  a  profession,  a  special 
business,  which  calls  for  experience  and  certain 
peculiar  gifts  in  the  administrators,  and  especially  in 
the  executive.  The  administration  of  the  old  typical 
colleges  was  comparatively  simple.  The  curriculum 
of  study  was  stereotyped.  The  Faculty  was  small, 
the  income  needed  was  not  large.  The  public, 
regarding  it  as  something,  if  not  sacred,  yet  as 
mysterious  to  them,  and  concerning  them  but  little, 
never  ventured  to  criticise  any  of  its  methods  or  its 
general  policy.  In  fact  they  gave  very  little  thought 
to  it.  Almost  any  clergyman  who  could  make  a 
good  appearance  in  the  pulpit  of  his  denomination 
and  teach  from  text-books  the  elements  of  intellectual 
and  moral  philosophy  could  fill  the  presidency  accept- 
ably. The  trustees  were  seen  at  the  college  only 
during  the  crowded  hours  of  the  Commencement 
season,  and  their  business  was  usually  performed 
in  the  most  perfunctory  way. 

How  different  is  the  case  with  the  State  university, 
[118] 


STATE     UNIVERSITIES 


and,  indeed,  with  many  universities  to-day.  The 
courses  of  study  are  varied  and  manifold.  They  re- 
quire large  Faculties  and  costly  appliances.  The 
annual  expenditures  are  many  times  those  of  the 
college  of  other  days.  Not  only  must  collegiate 
education  be  furnished  by  the  university,  but  in 
most  cases  technical  and  professional  training. 
Since  it  is  under  the  control  and  dependent,  in  some 
degree,  on  the  appropriations  of  the  State,  it  is  at 
once  the  pleasure  and  the  duty  of  its  officers  to  lay 
its  affairs  open  to  the  public  and  to  take  all  proper 
measures  to  keep  the  public  acquainted  with  its 
operations.  It  must  invite  inspection  and  challenge 
criticism.  It  must  be  ready  at  all  times  to  justify 
its  policy  before  the  people.  Its  curators,  therefore, 
cannot  well  be  so  neglectful  of  their  duties  as  many 
college  trustees  permit  themselves  to  be.  They 
should  keenly  feel  themselves  responsible  to  the 
public  for  the  manner  in  which  they  execute  their 
trust.  They  should  have  meetings  frequently  enough 
to  understand  the  affairs  of  the  university  and  to 
decide  upon  the  scope  of  its  work  and  its  general 
policy.  They  may  safely  leave,  and  practically 
they  must  leave,  the  details  of  the  work  inside  the 
university  to  the  Faculties,  reserving  to  themselves, 
of  course,  the  right  of  ultimate  control.  Consider- 
ing that  they  have  generally  been  men  who  have 
engrossing  business  pursuits  or  heavy  professional 
cares  of  their  own,  and  that  their  labors  as  regents 
have  been  unrequited  save  by  their  consciousness 

[119] 


SELECTED      ADDRESSES 


of  useful  service,  it  must  be  admitted  that  they  have 
for  the  most  part  been  very  faithful  to  their  duties. 
2.  It  is  in  the  highest  degree  desirable  that  the 
State  university  should,  so  far  as  possible,  be  under- 
stood and  appreciated  by  the  people  of  the  State. 
To  accomplish  this  is  not  easy.  The  proportion  of 
the  citizens  of  any  state  who  can  pursue  their  studies 
at  any  university  or  college  is  so  small,  the  number 
of  them  who  can  ever  even  visit  its  builings  and 
grounds  is  so  limited,  that  it  is  very  difficult  to  give 
to  the  great  masses  of  the  people  an  accurate  idea 
of  the  precise  nature  of  the  work  done  at  the  univer- 
sity, much  less  of  the  method  and  spirit  in  which  it  is 
done.  There  is,  therefore,  a  not  unnatural  tendency 
on  the  part  of  some  to  suppose  that  the  university 
is  a  sort  of  aristocratic  institution,  intended  to  confer 
special  privileges  on  a  chosen  few,  and  that  it  is  con- 
ducted with  extravagance.  No  pains  should  be 
spared  by  regents,  teachers  and  students  to  correct 
erroneous  impressions  and  disseminate  correct 
information  on  these  points.  By  speech,  by  official 
reports,  by  the  aid  of  the  press,  the  indisputable 
facts  should  be  made  known,  that  the  overwhelming 
majority  of  the  students  in  every  one  of  these 
institutions  are  the  children  of  parents  who  are 
poor,  or  of  very  moderate  means:  that  a  very  large 
proportion  have  earned  by  hard  toil  and  by  heroic 
self-denial  the  amount  needed  to  maintain  them- 
selves in  the  most  frugal  manner  during  their 
university   course,  and   that   so   far   from  being  an 

[  120] 


STATE     UNIVERSITIES 


aristocratic  institution  there  is  no  -  more  truly 
democratic  institution  in  the  world  than  the  univer- 
sity, none  in  which  wealth  and  birth  pass  for  so 
little  and  brains  and  character  for  so  much.  So 
far  as  practicable,  without  neglect  of  their  classes, 
the  university  teachers  should  improve  such  oppor- 
tunities as  offer  to  address  the  people  of  the  State, 
especially  upon  educational,  scientific  or  literary 
themes,  to  manifest  their  interest  in  the  public 
schools,  and  to  show  the  people  in  every  proper 
way  that  it  is  their  interests  which  the  university 
and  all  connected  with  it  desire  to  subserve.  I 
deem  it  of  great  consequence  that  the  financial 
conduct  of  the  institution  should,  with  the  utmost 
frankness,  be  made  known  to  the  State  by  pub- 
lishing ofiicial  reports.  The  more  thoroughly  the 
people  come  to  feel  that  the  State  university  is 
their  university,  sustained  in  large  part  by  their 
money,  and  for  the  benefit  of  their  children,  and 
through  these  children  for  the  benefit  of  the  State, 
and  that  it  is  economically  administered,  the  more 
strong  and  secure  is  the  life  of  the  university. 

Third.  The  university  needs  as  a  condition  of 
Success  that  provision  should  be  made  for  its  growth 
and  development.  In  this  prosperous  western  life, 
which  increases  wealth  and  population  at  so  rapid 
a  pace,  the  demands  on  the  State  university  must 
constantly  and  rapidly  increase.  In  these  circum- 
stances, for  the  university  to  stop  growing  is  to 
retrograde  and  begin  to  die.     If  it  is  not  continually 

[  121  ] 


SELECTED      ADDRESSES 


enlarging  its  facilities  for  instruction  and  improving 
its  methods  so  as  to  keep  abreast  with  other 
first-rate  universities  in  the  quahty  of  its  work, 
then  it  is  relatively,  if  not  absolutely,  going  behind 
and  bringing  discredit  on  itself  and  on  the  State. 
If  the  State  is  not  only  willing  that  it  should  grow, 
but  proud  that  it  should  grow,  then  the  State  had 
better  kill  it  at  once.  Instant  death  is  greatly  to 
be  preferred  to  death  by  starvation  or  torture. 
Men  of  high  worth  and  noble  spirit  will  not  long 
work  in  an  institution  which  is  forbidden  to  grow 
and  improve.  If  it  is  to  have  a  wholesome  growth, 
it  must  be  conducted  on  some  well-considered  plan. 
It  must  be  so  supported  and  administered  as  to  have 
a  certain  steadiness  of  life.  Its  abler  teachers,  whose 
ability  and  reputation  give  it  a  name,  should  be  so 
compensated,  and  should  be  so  sustained  by  the 
governing  board  and  by  the  public,  as  to  have  com- 
fort and  a  sense  of  security  in  their  positions.  It 
cannot  be  too  emphatically  declared  that  it  is  not 
fine  buildings  nor  great  colleges  that  make  a  univer- 
sity, but  gifted  and  learned  men,  endowed  with  the 
power  and  fired  with  the  love  of  teaching  and  inspir- 
ing their  pupils.  If  these  can  be  retained  on  condi- 
tions which  allow  them  to  be  reasonably  free  from 
solicitude  to  enjoy  intellectual  independence,  and 
to  throw  their  whole  energy  and  enthusiasm  into 
their  work,  students  will  flock  to  their  rooms,  sit 
delighted  at  their  feet,  and  catch  their  spirit  of 
scholarship  and  industry.     And  wherever  you  have 

[  122] 


STATE     UNIVERSITIES 


great  teachers  and  enthusiastic  students  you  have 
a  university,  even  though  they  dwell  in  log  cabins 
and  teach  and  study  upon  the  open  prairie. 

Nor  should  it  be  forgotten  by  any  of  us,  especially 
should  it  not  be  forgotten  by  the  students  themselves, 
how  largely  the  growth  and  prosperity  of  a  university 
are  dependent  on  the  students.  The  Regents  and 
the  Faculties  do  not  make  a  university.  The  Regents, 
the  teachers,  and  the  students  make  a  university. 
It  is  of  the  first  consequence  that  the  students 
appreciate  the  responsibility  which  rests  on  them 
in  making  a  good  name  for  the  university  and  in 
promoting  its  prosperity.  Nor  are  they  generally 
delinquent  in  this  regard.  If  occasionally  they  are 
tempted  into  youthful  indiscretions  or  if,  with  that 
affectation  of  cynicism  which  sometimes  appears 
with  the  first  sprouting  of  the  beard,  they  indulge  in 
over-wise  criticism  of  their  elders,  yet  as  a  rule  with 
a  beautiful  enthusiasm  they  sound  abroad  the  praises 
of  their  favorite  teachers,  stand  loyally  by  the  colors 
of  their  institution  in  the  face  of  all  opponents,  and 
gladly  do  what  they  may  for  its  honor  and  glory. 
This  comes  perhaps  generally  from  a  wholesome  and 
hearty  impulse  rather  than  from  a  consciousness  of 
the  power  they  really  have  to  commend  the  university 
in  all  parts  of  the  State  and  so  to  build  it  up.  The 
ardent  affection  of  the  graduates  of  a  university  is  a 
richer  treasure  than  the  uncounted  gold  of  a  stranger. 
Who  so  well  as  these  students  that  I  see  before  me 
can  perform  that  needed  work  of  which  I  have  before 

[  123] 


SELECTED      ADDRESSES 


spoken,  of  making  this  University  understood  and 
appreciated  by  the  thousands  who  can  never  see 
its  real  hfe?  As  the  years  go  on,  the  students  who 
have  dwelt  in  these  halls  will  be  found  in  every  city 
and  town  and  hamlet  and  rural  district  in  the  State. 
If  everywhere  they  shall  have  some  good  word  for 
the  dear  mother,  there  will  soon  exist  everywhere  that 
public  pride  in  the  university  which  is  the  best 
guarantee  that  it  shall  have  the  means  of  healthy 
growth. 

Fifth.  Does  not  this  study  of  the  difficulties, 
the  advantages,  and  the  needs  of  the  State  university 
inspire  us  with  hope  for  its  future?  The  difficulties 
are  not  insuperable,  the  advantages  are  positive 
and  great,  the  needs  can  for  the  most  part  be  readily 
supplied  in  these  prosperous  Western  States.  Each 
of  these  states  has  the  territory  and  the  resources  of 
a  European  kingdom.  There  should  be  in  each  at 
least  one  vigorous  university.  Germany  has  one 
for  each  two  million  inhabitants.  Most  of  these 
states  will  at  no  distant  day  each  have  more  inhabi- 
tants than  that  number.  Some  of  them  have  more 
already.  Can  any  one  who  measures  the  strength 
the  State  universities  have  already  attained  cherish 
a  doubt  that  the  one  great  university  in  each  one 
of  these  States,  if  there  is  to  be  one  great  university 
in  each,  will  be  the  State  university?  Then  the  State 
in  its  legislation  and  the  university  in  shaping  its 
development  should  lay  their  plans  in  view  of  this 
fact. 

[  124] 


STATE     UNIVERSITIES 


Think  of  what  a  future  this  State  may  have  before 
it.     In  area  she  is  larger  than  England  and  Wales, 
and   more  than   twice   as   large   as   Scotland.     The 
population   is   about  half  larger  than   that  of   the 
kingdom  of  Denmark.     Lying  in  the  very  heart  of 
the  continent,    favored    with   a  matchless    climate, 
watered  by  the  two  great  rivers  of  the  continent, 
teeming  with  agricultural,  mining,  and  manufacturing 
resources,  which  can  hardly  be  measured,  with  the 
amplest  communications  by  river  and  by  rail  for 
the  transportation  of  her  abundant  products  to  the 
markets  of  the  world,  with  a  population  drawn  from 
the  choicest  stocks  of  other  States  and  of  the  old 
world,   a  population  abounding  in  energy,  lofty  in 
character,  with  a  history  lustrous  with  the  achieve- 
ments of  men  renowned  in  every  honorable  vocation, 
what  elements  of  an  imperial  State,  what  assurance 
of  a  brilliant  future  are  wanting  to  her.?     But  with 
all  these  advantages,  one  thing  she  must  make  sure 
of,  or  they  will  prove  powerless  to  retain  for  her 
that  commanding  position  she  has  long  held,  and 
which  you  are  hoping  and  predicting  she  will  continue 
to  hold.     That  one  thing  is   a  goodly  number  of 
.  men  trained  by  the  best  education  which  the  age 
can  furnish  them  for  leadership  in  all  departments 
of  human  activity,  for  eminence  in  all  branches  of 
civic  life.     In  the  hot  competition  of  these  times 
those   communities   and   States  which   produce   the 
best    intelligence    and    the    loftiest    character    will 
press   to  the  front.     The  whole  nation  is  looking  to 

[  125  1 


SELECTED      ADDRESSES 


the  West,  which  is  marching  to  the  front  with  such 
tremendous  strides,  to  wield  the  preponderating 
influence  in  guiding  our  national  affairs  and  shaping 
our  national  destiny.  But  the  West  cannot  win  this 
high  honor  and  does  not  deserve  it  unless,  while 
abounding  in  natural  prosperity,  she  can  rear  genera- 
tions of  broad-minded,  thoroughly  trained,  high- 
souled  men  to  speak  and  act  for  her  in  all  posts  of 
responsibility  in  the  hour  of  the  nation's  need.  In 
this  great  work  may  this  State  and  her  university 
do  their  full  part. 


126] 


THE  OLD   COLLEGE  AND  THE 
NEW  UNIVERSITY 


JULY   1,   1899 

THE    FOUNDER'S    DAY    ADDRESS    DELIVERED    ON 

THE    OCCASION    OF   THE    TWENTY-NINTH 

CONVOCATION   OF   THE   UNIVERSITY 

OF  CHICAGO 


THE  OLD   COLLEGE   AND  THE  NEW 
UNIVERSITY 

iVl  AY  I  allow  my  personal  experience  to  suggest  my 
theme  to-day?  Exactly  fifty  years  ago  I  went  forth 
from  college  with  my  diploma,  as  these  graduates  go 
forth  at  this  hour,  to  test  in  the  conflicts  of  life  the 
worth  of  myself  and  of  the  discipline  and  scanty 
learning  which  my  diploma  represented.  As  I  am  one 
of  the  comparatively  small  number  in  this  assembly 
who  cherish  vivid  recollections  of  the  life,  organiza- 
tion, and  methods  of  the  American  college  of  half  a 
century  ago,  it  has  occurred  to  me  that  it  might  not 
be  altogether  uninteresting  or  unprofitable  to  you  if 
I  should  attempt  to  set  before  you  some  of  the  con- 
trasts between  the  college  of  1849  and  the  university 
of  1899.  I  say  the  college  of  1849  because,  although 
some  small  colleges  called  themselves  universities,  the 
title  on  the  catalogues  of  the  two  largest  institutions, 
Harvard  and  Yale,  for  1849-50  is  college,  and  not 
university. 

It  is  surprising  how  little  the  college  of  the  middle 
of  this  century  differed  in  its  general  plan  from  that 
of  a  century  before,  or  even  from  that  of  two  cen- 
turies before.  The  English  colonists  who  established 
the  New  England  colleges  naturally  built  them  on  the 
model  of  a  college  of  Cambridge  or  of  Oxford  Univer- 

[  129] 


SELECTED      ADDRESSES 


sity.  Master  and  tutors  with  titles  slightly  changed, 
dormitories,  with  hours  in  rooms  to  be  strictly  kept. 
Commons  Hall,  where  tutors  and  students  shared  the 
simple  fare,  the  ancient  classics,  the  mathematics, 
logic,  intellectual  and  moral  philosophy,  evidences  of 
Christianity  as  the  principal  studies,  comparative 
seclusion  from  the  outside  world,  college  prayers  at 
dawn  attended  by  half-dressed  students  not  always 
in  a  devout  frame,  after  that  a  recitation  for  an  hour 
before  breakfast  —  such  were  some  of  the  marked 
features  of  college  life. 

It  is  no  exaggeration  to  say  that  during  the  last 
fifty  years,  one  might  even  say  during  the  last  thirty 
years,  there  has  been  more  discussion  of  the  methods 
and  aims  of  collegiate  and  university  training  than 
had  been  known  from  the  planting  of  the  New  Eng- 
land colonies  down  to  1850.  There  was  nowhere 
such  questioning  of  the  wisdom  of  the  one  course 
everywhere  followed  as  was  raised  so  long  ago  as 
Bacon's  time  concerning  the  English  colleges.  For 
that  great  man,  to  whose  treatise  on  the  Advance- 
ment of  Learning  even  now  so  little  can  be  added, 
complains  that  "the  exclusive  dedicating  of  founda- 
tions and  donations  to  professory  learning  hath  not 
only  had  a  malign  aspect  and  influence  upon  the 
growth  of  sciences,  but  hath  also  been  prejudicial 
to  states  and  governments."  "For  hence,"  he  adds, 
*'  it  proceedeth  that  princes  find  a  solitude  in  regard 
of  able  men  to  serve  them  in  cases  of  state,  because 
there  is  no  education  collegiate  which  is  free,  where 

[130] 


COLLEGE     AND     UNIVERSITY 

such  as  were  so  disposed  might  give  themselves  to 
histories,  modern  languages,  books  of  policy,  and 
civil  discourse,  and  other  like  enablements  unto 
service  of  estate."  That  criticism  of  Bacon  might 
have  been  applied  with  almost  equal  force  to  the 
American  colleges  down  to  the  fifth  decade  of  this 
century. 

The  only  important  exception  to  the  common 
form  of  organization  and  work  in  the  United  States 
was  the  University  of  Virginia,  which  was  opened 
in  1825.  As  you  all  know,  Mr.  Jefferson  devised 
the  plan  of  that  institution.  It  is  said  that  he  was 
largely  influenced  by  the  suggestions  of  a  distin- 
guished Frenchman,  M.  Dupont  de  Nemours,  in 
perfecting  the  scheme.  It  bears  the  impress  of 
a  mind  familiar  with  continental  universities.  It 
anticipated,  to  a  considerable  degree,  the  methods 
of  the  universities,  which  allow  elections  of  different 
courses  of  studies,  and  which  confer  degrees  as  well 
upon  proficients  in  science  as  upon  those  who  have 
completed  courses  in  the  ancient  classics.  From 
some  cause  the  experiment  in  Virginia,  though  it 
proved  reasonably  satisfactory  to  the  citizens  of 
that  State,  was  for  a  long  time  nowhere  imitated. 
Whether  this  failure  to  commend  itself  to  general 
favor  was  in  any  degree  owing  to  the  somewhat 
widespread  distrust  of  Mr.  Jefferson  as  a  theorist 
in  science  and  education,  or  to  the  want  of  the  ample 
means  required  to  establish  and  maintain  an  in- 
stitution on  his  plan,  I  cannot  say.     But  probably 

[131] 


SELECTED      ADDRESSES 


not  a  dozen  college  instructors  in  the  country  were 
then  prepared  to  believe  that  any  considerable  change 
in  the  American  college  system  could  be  an  improve- 
ment. It  was  apparently  from  deference  to  the 
earnest  wishes  of  Mr.  Jefferson,  to  whom  the  uni- 
versity owed  its  very  existence,  and  who  bestowed 
years  of  the  most  patient  labor  upon  it,  rather  than 
to  a  deliberate  approval  of  his  scheme  by  his  asso- 
ciates, that  the  institution  took  on  a  form  then  so 
novel.  Mr.  Madison  used  to  urge,  we  are  told,  in 
the  meetings  of  the  Board,  that  "as  the  whole  design 
originated  with  Mr.  Jefferson,  and  the  chief  responsi- 
bility for  success  or  failure  was  his,  it  was  but  fair 
to  allow  him  carry  it  into  effect  in  his  own  way." 

I  have  never  heard  that  the  establishment  of  the 
University  of  Virginia  gave  rise  to  any  general 
discussion  of  college  methods  in  the  journals  or  the 
academic  circles  of  that  day.  But  a  few  minds  were 
soon  considering  some  of  the  questions  which  have 
since  engaged  public  attention.  There  were  a  few 
earnest  debates  upon  the  importance  of  the  ancient 
classics,  the  most  notable  of  which  was  that  between 
Mr.  Grimke  and  Mr.  Legare,  of  South  Carolina. 
The  corporation  of  Yale  College  was  asked  to  con- 
sider whether  the  study  of  Greek  and  Latin  should 
be  dispensed  with.  Amherst  College  actually  an- 
nounced a  course  in  which  no  classical  study  was 
required,  but  soon  abandoned  it.  In  1825  George 
Ticknor  warmly  urged  Harvard  College  to  open  an 
unlimited  choice  of  studies  to  undergraduates  and 

[  132] 


COLLEGE     AND     UNIVERSITY 

suggested  other  changes  in  the  curriculum.  At 
about  that  time  Harvard  did  open  a  limited  range 
of  options  to  the  students. 

In  1829  the  Faculty  of  the  University  of  Vermont 
drew  up  a  paper  on  collegiate  work  which  attracted 
much  attention.  It  was  the  fruit  of  the  earnest 
deliberation  of  a  corps  of  gifted  teachers,  among 
whom  were  James  Marsh  and  Joseph  Torrey.  Its 
most  valuable  feature  was  its  careful  arrangement 
of  studies  in  a  philosophic  order,  based  on  a  pro- 
found study  of  the  laws  of  mental  development  and 
of  the  nature  and  value  of  different  branches  of 
knowledge.  It  may  even  now  be  read  with  interest 
and  profit. 

But  it  was,  so  far  as  I  know,  to  that  vigorous  and 
inspiring  teacher,  President  Wayland,  of  Brown 
University,  that  we  owe  the  earliest  volume  on  the 
subject  of  American  collegiate  education.  In  1842, 
when  the  state  of  Rhode  Island  was  rent  with  civil 
commotions,  he  prepared  his  little  book  entitled 
"Thoughts  on  the  Collegiate  System  in  the  United 
States."  He  occupied  himself  more  with  exposing 
the  defects  in  our  system  than  in  suggesting  remedies 
for  the  evils.  But  the  first  step  toward  finding  the 
remedy  is  a  clear  perception  of  the  evil.  It  may 
fairly  be  claimed  that  Dr.  Wayland  was  one  of  the 
first,  if  not  the  first,  to  make  a  careful  study  of 
the  weak  points  in  our  traditionary  system.  But 
his  treatise,  though  it  was  read  with  attention  and 
interest,  did  not  produce  any  immediate  effect  upon 

[  133] 


SELECTED      ADDRESSES 


the  American  collegiate  system.  For  nearly  ten 
years  more,  life  moved  on  in  the  quiet  old  way  under 
every  college  roof. 

But  suddenly  in  1850  the  academic  circles  were 
startled  by  the  ringing  summons  to  reconsider  their 
methods  of  work.  The  fearless  and  self-reliant 
thinker  who  in  1842  saw  so  many  defects  in  our 
colleges  now  came  forward,  full  of  hope  and  enthu- 
siasm, to  offer  remedies.  His  glowing  words 
kindled  hot  discussions  on  every  side.  A  few  were 
with  him,  but  many  were  against  him.  No  single 
treatise  or  paper  which  appeared  before  Dr.  Way- 
land's  Report  to  the  Corporation  of  Brown  Univer- 
sity in  1850,  perhaps  none  which  has  appeared  since, 
has  awakened  so  fruitful  discussions  as  that.  It 
began,  is  it  too  much  to  say  that  it  caused,  that 
agitation  in  academic  circles  which  has  resulted  in 
some  modification  of  the  course  in  every  college 
in  the  land.  From  the  day  of  its  appearance  until 
now,  not  only  educational  journals,  but  the  secular 
and  religious  journals,  the  magazines  and  reviews, 
college  faculties,  the  patrons  of  colleges,  all  that 
great  company  of  people  who  are  interested  in  the 
character  of  our  higher  education,  have  been  vig- 
orously arguing  to  determine  what  the  American 
college  and  university  should  aim  to  be  and  to  do. 

Some  of  the  most  salient  recommendations  in  this 
report  were  these:  The  abolition  of  the  fixed  term  of 
four  years  of  study  as  the  requisite  to  a  degree;  the 
opening  of  large  choice  of  studies  to  students;  the 

[134] 


COLLEGE     AND     UNIVERSITY 

recognition  by  a  degree  of  the  completion  of  other 
than  classical  work;  the  establishment  of  courses  in 
the  application  of  science  to  the  arts;  the  endeavor 
to  meet  in  every  way  every  variety  of  intellectual 
want.  Unhappily  the  funds  raised  for  the  reorgan- 
ization of  the  college  were  not  enough  to  give  full 
execution  to  the  plan,  and  some  of  the  details  were 
not  wisely  arranged.  But  the  ideas  of  larger  liberty 
in  the  election  of  studies  and  of  an  ampler  oppor- 
tunity for  scientific  training  and  of  a  more  just 
estimate  of  the  relative  value  of  scientific  training 
to  the  purely  classical,  all  of  which  were  emphasized 
in  Dr.  Wayland's  report  of  1850,  were  never  again 
lost  sight  of  in  the  discussions  of  American  collegiate 
schemes.  That  great  leader  in  shaping  the  educa- 
tional ideas  of  the  West,  President  Tappan,  who  was 
deeply  inspired  by  Dr.  Wayland's  report,  immedi- 
ately on  entering  upon  his  duties  at  the  University 
of  Michigan  in  1852  set  up  the  scientific  course 
parallel  to  the  classical,  and  soon  after  established 
a  school  of  engineering.  All  the  State  universities  of 
the  West  have  followed  in  the  same  path.  Harvard, 
which  in  George  Ticknor's  time  was  the  first  to  make 
a  small  beginning  in  offering  elections  in  studies, 
was  under  its  present  energetic  president  the  leader 
in  throwing  open  the  widest  elections  to  the  candi- 
dates for  the  degree  of  Bachelor  of  Arts.  It  is 
not  my  purpose  to  trace  in  detail  the  evolution  of 
the  remarkable  changes  which  have  taken  place  in 
college  and  university  life  since  1849,  but  rather  to 

[135] 


SELECTED      ADDRESSES 


direct  attention  to  the  contrast  between  the  college 
of  that  time  and  the  university  of  our  day. 

Half  a  century  ago  the  curricula  of  the  various 
colleges  differed  very  little  from  one  another.  Four 
years  of  studies,  almost  the  whole  of  which  were 
rigorously  prescribed  for  every  student,  regardless  of 
his  tastes,  aptitudes,  or  plans  of  life,  were  laid  out 
in  substantially  the  same  way  in  every  institution. 
Most  of  us,  therefore,  received  whatever  help  there 
is  in  the  discipline  of  doing  or  failing  to  do  some  work 
uninteresting  or  impossible  to  us.  The  instruction 
in  science  was  for  the  most  part  meagre  and  addressed 
to  the  memory  rather  than  to  powers  of  observation 
and  reasoning.  It  was  generally  taught  from  text- 
books, and  in  the  case  of  physics  and  chemistry 
enlivened  by  some  lectures  with  experiments  which 
enlightened  the  hearers  by  their  failures  almost  as 
often  as  by  their  success.  Chemical  laboratories  in 
colleges  were  almost  or  quite  unknown.  I  think 
the  only  one  opened  in  1849  was  that  in  the  Lawrence 
Scientific  School,  but  it  does  not  appear  from  the 
Harvard  Catalogue  that  it  was  open  to  college  stu- 
dents. Laboratories  for  other  scientific  studies  than 
chemistry  were  not  thought  of  at  all.  It  will  readily 
be  seen  that  the  method  of  scientific  instruction 
has  been  entirely  revolutionized.  In  the  last  half 
century  no  more  important  step  in  education  has 
been  taken  than  in  the  universal  introduction  of  the 
laboratory  methods  in  the  sciences.  Of  course  with 
this  change  has  come  the  appropriation  of  much  more 

[136] 


COLLEGE     AND     UNIVERSITY 

time  to  the  pursuit  of  science  by  men  who  wish  to 
become  experts  in  it.  Under  the  old  system  it  was 
possible  to  obtain  only  a  smattering  of  any  science. 
One  third  of  a  year  was  usually  given  to  each,  some- 
times only  one  sixth. 

It  is  obvious  that  with  a  rigid  curriculum,  in  which 
every  one  was  obliged  to  do  a  little  of  many  things,  it 
was  impossible  to  give  to  some  branches  the  time  for 
any  but  the  most  elementary  work,  or  even  to  touch 
some  branches  to  which  much  time  is  now  devoted. 
For  instance.  Political  Economy  in  1849  was  pursued 
for  only  one  third  of  the  college  year  in  Yale  and 
Brown,  and  in  Harvard  was  coupled  with  Story's 
Commentaries  on  the  Constitution  as  one  study  for 
half  the  college  year.  No  ampler  instruction  in  that 
subject  was  then  attainable  in  any  college.  Modern 
and  mediaeval  History,  which  has  now  become  so 
important  a  branch  in  our  universities,  then  received 
scant  attention.  The  Yale  Catalogue  of  1849-50 
carries  the  name  of  -no  Professor  of  History.  The 
same  can  be  said  of  Brown,  though  the  Professor 
of  Rhetoric  did  give  some  of  his  time  to  the  teaching 
of  Histo'ry.  The  Catalogue  of  Harvard  was  adorned 
in  1849  with  the  great  name  of  Jared  Sparks  as 
Professor  of  Ancient  and  Modern  History.  But 
I  doubt  if  any  other  college  in  the  land  had  a  chair 
of  History  fifty  years  ago.  English  Literature  fared 
as  badly  as  History.  You  will  not  find  it  specifically 
named  in  the  curriculum  of  any  college  of  that  day. 
The  Professor  of  Rhetoric  was  expected  to  direct 

[  137] 


SELECTED      ADDRESSES 


the  attention  of  his  pupils  to  some  of  the  great 
authors  in  illustration  of  his  teachings.  But  the 
systematic  study  of  them  was  rarely  called  for,  except 
as  they  might  be  named  as  the  subjects  of  essays  or 
speeches.  The  opportunities  for  the  study  of  the 
Modern  Languages  were  very  restricted.  In  Yale 
College  for  two  thirds  of  a  year  they  could  be  pur- 
sued. In  Brown  University  French  was  offered  for 
one  year  and  German  for  a  short  term.  In  Harvard 
much  more  generous  provision  was  made.  But  in 
most  colleges  not  more  than  a  year's  instruction  in 
French  or  German  was  given,  and  in  some  none  at 
all  was  furnished.  Of  course  almost  never  could 
what  we  now  call  advanced  undergraduate  work  in 
Mathematics  or  Science  or  Philosophy  be  attained. 
Several  branches  now  taught  in  all  stronger  institu- 
tions were  not  taught  at  all;  for  example,  Compara- 
tive Philology,  Early  English,  Pedagogy,  Sociology, 
Sanscrit,  and  the  Semitic  tongues.  The  range  of 
college  work  was  restricted  to  a  degree  which  must 
seem  to  the  student  of  our  day  as  scarcely  credible. 
The  methods  then  pursued  in  instruction  in  science 
are  not  now  tolerated  in  a  decent  high  school. 

The  favorite  expression  employed  then  to  desig- 
nate the  relation  sustained  by  the  President  or  the 
Faculty  of  the  college  was  in  loco  parentis.  This 
expression  had  come  down  from  the  days  when  the 
President  inflicted  corporal  punishment  on  recal- 
citrant pupils.  Under  cover  of  it  stern  executives, 
in  a  spirit  sometimes  not  lacking  in  arbitrariness, 

[138] 


COLLEGE     AND     UNIVERSITY 

laid  a  great  variety  of  penalties,  including  pecuniary 
fines,  upon  the  youths  who  were  subject  to  their 
parental  care.  Bearded  men  were  kept  under  a 
minute  surveillance  night  and  day,  such  as  is  prac- 
tised now  only  in  boarding  schools  for  small  boys. 
Their  rooms  were  often  visited  twice  a  day  by  a 
Professor  to  see  that  they  were  rigorously  keeping 
hours  prescribed  for  study.  Absences  from  prayers, 
which  were  held  before  light  in  the  winter  mornings 
and  at  four  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  and  absences 
from  rooms  at  the  time  of  the  Professor's  calls, 
were  punished  by  fines,  which  increased  in  rate 
as  the  number  of  absences  increased.  A  waggish 
classmate  of  mine,  who  was  studying  the  laws  of 
prices  in  Political  Economy,  once  complained  to  the 
college  authorities  that  college  prayers  were  the  only 
article  he  ever  bought  which  were  dearer  at  whole- 
sale than  at  retail.  The  life  in  Commons  Hall,  where 
at  meal  times  the  impulsiveness  of  the  hungry  throng 
was  restrained  only  by  the  presence  of  one  tutor  who 
sat  at  the  Seniors'  table,  was  conducive  to  anything 
but  elegance  of  manners  and  soundness  of  digestion. 
The  distance  which  separated  the  students  from 
members  of  the  Faculty  in  their  personal  and  social 
intercourse  was  greater  than  that  which  now  exists 
in  most  colleges  and  universities.  And  the  fact 
that  the  Professors  were  required  by  the  organization 
of  the  institution  to  keep  up  a  sort  of  espionage  on 
students  at  all  hours  greatly  stimulated  the  students 
to  outwit  and  annoy  the  professorial  spies  by  tricks 

[139] 


SELECTED      ADDRESSES 


/Coll< 


and  escapades  which  have  happily  disappeared,  for  the 
most  part,  from  our  principal  institutions  of  higher 
education.  I  think  all  who  can  remember  the  college 
life  of  half  a  century  ago  will  agree  that  the  con- 
ditions were  less  friendly  than  the  present  to  the  main- 
tenance of  pleasant  and  profitable  relations  between 
teacher  and  pupil  and  to  the  growth  of  manli- 
ness and  serious  purpose  in  the  student.  The  con- 
trast is  often  felt  at  Commencement  dinners  when 
some  venerable  graduate  has  the  bad  taste  to  enter- 
tain the  company  with  the  stories  of  his  silly  college 
pranks,  of  which  any  student  now  would  be  incapable. 

r.  Woolsey,  in  his  historical  address  at  Yale 
College  in  1850,  called  attention  to  the  fact  that  the 
college  course  as  it  was  given  at  that  time  tended  to 
repress  individual  peculiarities  and  cast  all  men  in 
the  same  mould  more  than  the  course  of  the  previous 
century,  in  which  the  students  were  incited  to  argue 
and  debate  on  philosophical  questions.  There  can 
be  no  doubt  that  the  uniformity  of  the  work  which  all 
the  students  had  to  accomplish,  whatever  the  differ- 
ences of  mental  make  among  them,  tended  far  more 
than  the  present  system  of  large  elections  to  prevent 
the  development  of  men  along  the  line  of  their  native 
gifts. 

ne'  result  was  sometimes  attained  in  the  old 
college  which  is  less  easily  secured  in  the  great 
university  of  the  present  day,  a  result  due  not  to  any 
superiority  in  organization,  but  to  the  limited  number 
of  students  then  in  attendance.     It  was  the  powerful 

[  140  ] 


COLLEGE     AND     UNIVERSITY 

iiggressioiyiLagi:^^  teacher,  when  a  Faculty  was  so 
fortunateas  tonave  one,  on  the  minds  and  characters 
of  the  great  mass  of  students.  When  EHphalet  Nott 
or  Mark  Hopkins  or  Francis  Wayland  had  a  class 
of  only  thirty  or  forty  students  in  daily  contact  with 
him,  the  stamp  of  the  teacher  was  ineffaceably  set 
upon  almost  every  student,  so  that  the  whole  college 
took  on  the  shape  and  coloring  of  his  mind.  No 
one  teacher,  however  gifted  and  impressive,  in  our 
great  universities,  where  the  students  are  pursuing 
such  a  diversity  of  courses,  can  wield  such  a  power 
over  the  whole  body  of  students,  though,  doubtless, 
a  Nott  or  Hopkins  or  Wayland,  if  a  member  of  the 
Faculty  of  a  modern  university,  would  draw  to  his 
class-room  a  larger  number  of  pupils  than  was  found 
in  Union  or  Williams  or  Brown  in  their  day.  The 
result  of  this  contact  of  a  master  with  the  whole 
membership  of  a  small  college  is  generally  considered 
as  an  indisputable  advantage.  But  it  is  perhaps  open 
to  dispute  whether  it  is  better  for  a  whole  body  of 
students  to  be  thus  dominated  by  the  doctrines  of 
any  one  man,  however  eminent,  than  to  have  the 
more  catholic  discipline  which  flows  from  contact 
with  excellent  teachers  of  various  attainments  and 
temperaments.  The  great  scholars  of  Germany 
habitually  follow  the  practice  of  going  from  one  uni- 
versity to  another,  to  sit  at  the  feet  of  more  great 
masters  than  one.  And  just  now  the  first  scholars  in 
this  country  are  laying  plans  to  facilitate  the  migra- 
tion of  our  graduate  students  from  one  university  to 

[141] 


SELECTED      ADDRESSES 


another,   in   order   that   they   may   touch   the  best 
teachers  in  more  than  one. 

While  the  old  college  was  made  illustrious  by  some 
such  famous  teachers  as  those  I  have  named,  it  is  to 
be  observed  that  the  university  of  our  time  demands, 
as  a  rule,  much  larger  attainments  in  its  Professors 
than  were  formerly  asked.  Fifty  years  ago  many 
professorial  chairs  were  filled  by  men  who  had  not 
made  much  special  study  of  the  branch  or  branches 
which  they  were  appointed  to  teach.  I  say  branches, 
because  in  many  cases,  in  scientific  teaching  gen- 
erally, a  man  was  expected  to  teach  two  or  three,  or 
even  more,  branches.  Not  infrequently  a  preacher 
^  J  j  who  had  become  weary  of  writing  sermons,  or  whose 
parish  had  become  weary  of  hearing  his  sermons, 
was  appointed  to  a  chair,  because  it  was  hoped  he 
could  teach  respectably,  while  he  could  commend 
the  college  to  the  public  by  supplying  pulpits  of  the 
vicinity  from  time  to  time.  Having  this  means  of 
earning  something  on  Sundays,  he  could  afford  to 
accept  a  moderate  salary  for  his  college  work.  One 
such  gentleman  applied  for  a  chair  in  a  college  with 
whose  Faculty  I  was  connected,  and  when  asked  what 
chair  he  thought  he  was  fitted  to  fill,  replied  that  he 
thought  he  could  slide  into  almost  any  one  of  them. 
But  teaching  in  a  college  or  university  of  the  first 
rank  has  happily  become  a  profession,  for  which  long 
and  careful  preparation  is  now  exacted.  A  man  who 
has  failed  in  another  calling  can  no  longer  expect 
to  "slide"   into    a    professorial   chair.      True,   not 

[  142] 


COLLEGE     AND     UNIVERSITY 

all  the  learning  which  can  be  acquired  in  the  best 
American  and  European  universities  will  make  a 
successful  professor  of  the  man  who  has  not  in  him 
the  divine  gift  of  teaching.  But  even  the  possessor 
of  this  divine  gift  must  bring  to  his  work  now  a 
generous  outfit  of  learning  in  his  chosen  branch. 
And  the  leading  colleges  and  universities  in  our 
country  may  now  well  be  proud  of  the  brilliant 
generation  of  scholars  who  fill  most  of  their  important^ 
chairs  of  instruction.  Under  the  old  order  of  things  ; 
there  was  no  necessity,  and  little  inducement,  for 
the  teacher  of  any  branch  but  the  ancient  classics 
to  go  far  beyond  the  comparatively  elementary  stages 
of  learning.  But  the  elective  system  and  the  gradu- 
ate work  in  all  our  universities  now  demand  that 
there  shall  be  learned  specialists,  who  have  pushed 
their  studies  well  up  to  the  remotest  frontier  of  knowl- 
edge in  their  respective  fields,  and  are  constantly 
striving  to  explore  beyond  that  frontier. 

The  contrast  in  the  range  of  the  advantages  now 
offered  in  the  university  and  in  that  of  the  oppor- 
tunities present  in  the  college  of  fifty  years  ago  is 
well  typified  in  the  contrast  between  the  buildings, 
laboratories,  libraries,  and  other  educational  appli- 
ances of  a  good  university  of  to-day  and  those  of  a 
college  of  olden  time,  or  in  the  contrast  between  their 
endowments  then  and  now.  It  would  be  a  moderate 
statement  to  say  that  the  income-yielding  funds  of 
our  stronger  institutions  have  increased  twenty-fold, 
and  that  the  income  and  expenditures  of  some  of  the 

[  143  ] 


SELECTED   ADDRESSES 


most  important  have  increased  much  more  than  that. 
In  1850  the  total  endowment  funds  of  Brown  Uni- 
versity amounted  to  only  $34,500.  The  income 
could  not  have  much  exceeded  $2000.  Last  year  the 
income  of  that  institution  was  $129,677.  In  1850 
the  income  of  Yale  College  was  $23,000.  I  suppose 
it  must  be  at  least  $700,000  now.  The  salaries  of 
professors  in  1850  were  $800  to  $1000,  in  Yale  $1150. 
The  income  of  Harvard  is  now  about  $1,200,000. 

A  university  of  the  leading  type  cannot  go  on  with- 
out a  plant  and  endowment  of  several  millions  in 
value.  This  increase  in  the  resources  and  outlay 
of  a  university  is  due  in  part  to  the  necessity  of 
accommodating  more  students,  but  also  happily  to 
the  desire  to  have  buildings  of  becoming  architecture, 
to  the  great  costliness  of  scientific  instruction  which 
has  been  so  rapidly  developed,  to  the  collecting  of 
large  and  valuable  libraries,  which  are  so  indispen- 
sable to  the  scholar,  and  to  the  enlargement  of  the 
faculties,  consequent  not  only  on  the  increase  in 
students,  but  to  specialization  in  teaching.  The 
conduct  of  a  university  has  become,  from  one  point 
of  view,  a  great  business  transaction.  On  this 
account,  as  well  as  by  reason  of  the  important 
changes  in  the  organization  of  the  work,  the  duties 
of  the  president  of  such  an  institution  have  been 
considerably  modified.  The  qualifications  for  suc- 
cess in  the  executive  office  are  different  from  those 
which  were  formerly  regarded  as  sufficient.  It  used 
to  be  thought  that  a  clergyman  of  imposing  appear- 

[  144] 


COLLEGE     AND     UNIVERSITY 

ance,  who  could  make  a  good  impression  in  the 
pulpits  of  his  denomination,  who  could  teach  in- 
tellectual and  moral  philosophy  from  text-books 
and  show  some  tact  in  managing  unruly  students, 
and  who  had  received  the  degree  of  Doctor  of 
Divinity,  possessed  the  essential  qualities  needed  for 
a  college  president.  ?  But  intelligent  trustees  of  a 
university,  who  are  seeking  a  president,  now  look 
for  a  man  with  administrative  talent,  with  some 
familiarity  with  business  methods,  with  a  knowl- 
edge of  men,  with  judgment  in  choosing  and  tact 
in  leading  the  many  teachers  now  required'  in  a 
great  faculty.  He  is  of  course  expected  to  have 
scholarly  attainments  in  some  branch  of  learning, 
and  to  be  familiar  with  the  best  thought  on 
educational  problems.  But  he  is  not  asked  to 
teach,  and  unfortunately  in  my  opinion  does  not 
generally  give  any  regular  instruction.  If  we  may 
judge  from  the  number  of  important  universities 
that  are  always  seeking  presidents,  the  needed  com- 
bination of  qualities  now  looked  for  is  not  easy  to 
find,  or  the  men  who  possess  them  wisely  prefer  to 
follow  some  other  less  trying  and  exacting  pursuit 
than  that  of  a  university  executive. 

Not  only  has  there  come  a  change  in  the  qualifica- 
tions of  the  teachers  and  the  executive  during  the 
present  generation,  but  also  a  marked  change  in 
the  proportion  of  students  who  are  not  intending 
to  follow  the  professions  of  the  ministry,  law,  and 
medicine.     Originally,  as  is  well  known,  the  New 

[  145  ] 


SELECTED      ADDRESSES 


England  Colleges  were  chiefly  intended  to  supply 
the  churches  with  a  learned  ministry.  They  were 
regarded  as  also  useful  for  men  looking  to  the  practice 
of  law  or  medicine.  But  rather  slowly  the  conviction 
became  general  that  a  liberal  training  was  useful  to 
men  who  were  to  engage  in  other  pursuits.  For- 
tunately the  belief  has  become  widespread  that  it  is 
essential  to  the  highest  success  of  a  man  of  any 
calling  to  have  a  well-disciplined  and  thoroughly 
furnished  mind  and  to  be  moulded  into  that  type  of 
manhood  which  a  university  life  is  calculated  to 
produce.  So  it  has  come  to  pass  that  a  very  large 
proportion  of  students  in  our  day  are  not  looking 
forward  to  what  used  to  be  called  the  learned 
professions.  But  welcoming  the  opportunities  now 
offered  in  the  varied  courses  of  instruction  in  the 
university  for  general  culture  or  specific  training  in 
some  one  direction,  they  crowd  the  halls  of  learning 
and  go  forth  to  beneficent  and  illuminating  lives 
in  every  worthy  pursuit.  The  result  is  that  the 
blessings  of  university  culture  directly  and  indirectly 
are  diffused  much  more  thoroughly  then  formerly 
throughout  all  parts  of  the  body  politic. 

No  other  change  in  the  constitution  of  the  student 
body  has  been  so  striking  as  that  caused  by  the 
opening  of  colleges  and  universities  to  women. 
Fifty  years  ago  there  was  no  school  of  really  collegiate 
rank  to  which  a  woman  could  gain  admission. 
Now  women  can,  in  this  country,  have  access  to  the 
same    opportunities    for    collegiate    and    university 

[  146  1 


COLLEGE     AND     UNIVERSITY 

training  as  men.  Of  the  many  beneficent  and  far- 
reaching  consequences  of  this  change  in  educational 
administration  I  cannot  now  speak.  But  I  cannot 
refrain  from  saying  that  no  other  single  cause  has 
done  and  is  doing  more  to  elevate  the  work  of  our 
secondary  schools.  By  far  the  larger  number  of 
teachers  in  high  schools,  especially  in  the  West, 
are  women.  Formerly  most  of  them  were  unable 
to  secure  the  needed  training  for  their  work.  Even 
if  here  and  there  a  woman,  by  her  exceptional  talent 
and  energy,  had  succeeded  in  the  face  of  all  obstacles 
in  obtaining  that  training,  she  was  weakened  and 
embarrassed  in  her  work  by  the  fear  that  she  was 
not  as  well  prepared  as  the  men  who  competed  with 
her.  But  now  she  not  only  has  the  very  same  train- 
ing as  they,  but  she  knows  that  she  has  it,  and 
conducts  her  classes  with  a  confidence  which  adds 
immensely  to  her  power  as  a  teacher.  The  remark- 
able improvement  which  has  been  made  in  the  high 
schools  of  the  West  has  been  largely  due  to  the  ampler 
learning  and  the  confident  power  which  women  now 
carry  from  our  universities  to  the  schools. 

A  feature  of  considerable  importance  in  the  new"" 
life  of  college  and  university  is  the  training  in^ 
gymnastics  and  the  prominence  of  athletic  games. 
Baseball  and  football  were  favorite  college  games 
long  ago.  But  the  costly  and  commodious  modern 
gymnasium  was  not  found  half  a  century  ago  on  any 
college  grounds.  Intercollegiate  contests  were  un- 
known.    The  newspapers  blazoned  forth  the  achieve- 

[147] 


SELECTED      ADDRESSES 


ments  on  the  field  of  no  college  hero.  The  athletic 
rivalries  were  confined  to  classes  in  a  college.  Now 
the  gymnasium  is  one  of  the  most  spacious  and 
costly  edifices  in  many  universities.  The  teacher 
of  gymnastics  is  a  member  of  the  faculty.  The 
athletic  contests  receive  the  careful  attention  and 
are  under  the  control  of  a  committee  of  professors. 
If  one  were  to  judge  by  the  space  given  to  inter- 
collegiate contests  in  all  the  newspapers,  one  would 
conclude  that  the  main  purpose  of  a  modern  college 
or  university  is  to  row  or  to  play  baseball  or  football, 
and  that  study  is  merely  an  incident,  a  diversion,  a 
by-play. 

at  the  systematic  and  wisely  conducted  exercises 
the  gymnasium  and  the  spirited  games  in  the 
athletic  field,  when  played  in  an  unprofessional 
spirit,  are  conducive  to  health,  self-control,  and 
manliness,  cannot  be  doubted.  I  believe  that  by 
our  attention  to  physical  training  we  are  rearing  a 
stronger  and  more  vigorous  generation  of  students, 
both  men  and  women,  in  our  higher  institutions 
than  the  preceding  generation.  That  we  have  yet 
something  to  learn  by  experience  of  the  proper  rela- 
tions of  athletics  to  university  life  and  of  the  wisest 
(Use  of  them  will  probably  be  conceded  by  all. 

One  of  the  most  striking  and  encouraging  facts  in 
'the  growth  of  the  new  university  is  the  rapid  develop- 
ment of  the  graduate  school.     Yale  College  estab- 
lished such  a  department  in  1847.     In  the  catalogue 
^i!of  1849-50  the  names  of  twenty  graduate  students 

[  148  ] 


COLLEGE     AND     UNIVERSITY 

appear,  in  the  Harvard  catalogue  for  the  same  year 
the  names  of  four.  For  the  most  part,  in  those  days 
those  who  wished  to  carry  their  literary  or  scientific 
studies  beyond  the  old  curriculum  were  obliged  to 
go  to  the  European  universities.  But  now  every 
important  university  has  a  well-organized  graduate 
department,  with  a  considerable  company  of  zealous 
students  who  are  pushing  their  work  far  beyond 
the  frontier  of  the  undergraduate  department.  The 
number  of  such  students  now  in  attendance  is  esti- 
mated at  more  than  five  thousand.  These  graduate 
schools  are  the  nurseries  of  the  great  body  of  most 
accomplished  teachers  for  our  high  schools,  academies, 
colleges,  and  universities.  In  these  are  some  learned, 
conscientious,  and  inspiring  professors  who  impart 
as  good  instruction  as  can  be  obtained  in  any  Euro- 
pean university.  The  fact  that  most  of  them  are 
handicapped  by  the  necessity  of  giving  instruction 
to  undergraduates,  of  course,  seriously  interferes 
with  the  attainment  of  the  best  results.  But  the 
lifting  power  of  the  presence  in  the  university  of  a 
considerable  number  of  mature  graduates,  working 
in  their  free  and  earnest  manner,  is  felt  by  the  whole 
body  of  undergraduates.  But  if  we  are  to  do  the 
work  to  which  we  aspire  through  our  graduate  schools 
we  shall  have  to  create  a  faculty  of  learned  teachers 
who  can  give  their  entire  energies  to  the  instruction  of 
graduates  by  the  methods  especially  suited  to  them. 
Perhaps  in  no  particular  is  the  contrast  between 
the  old  college  and  the  new  university  more  marked 

[149] 


SELECTED      ADDRESSES 


V  /  /than  in  the  close  relation  of  the  university,  and 
'  /  especially  the  university  in  the  West,  to  the  public 
and  to  the  schools.  It  is  not  easy  for  us  now  to 
realize  to  how  great  an  extent  the  college  of  fifty 
years  ago  was  isolated  from  the  public.  By  the 
'  great  mass  of  common  people  it  was  regarded  as 
the  home  of  useless  and  harmless  recluses,  of  the 
mysteries  of  whose  life  they  knew  nothing  and  for 
whose  pursuits  they  cared  nothing.  The  college 
officers  took  little  pains  to  make  themselves  or  their 
work  known  to  the  masses.  They  did  not  particu- 
larly concern  themselves  about  cultivating  intimate 
relations  with  the  schools.  They  lived  in  a  sort  of 
dignified  seclusion.  Their  influence  was,  therefore, 
not  directly  felt  to  any  great  extent  in  the  educational 
systems  of  the  states.  Nor  did  they  take  much 
pains  to  adjust  their  work  to  that  of  the  schools. 

But  we  all  know  how  conspicuous  most  of  the  uni- 
versities have  been  in  recent  years  in  all  educational 
discussions  and  in  reforms  of  the  primary  and 
secondary  schools,  as  well  as  of  collegiate  work. 
They  have  abandoned  their  monastic  seclusion. 
They  have  sought  to  make  their  aims  and  their  life 
known  to  all  the  public  and  to  interest  all  classes 
lof  men  in  their  welfare.  They  have  endeavored 
,'to  shape  their  work  so  as  to  be  of  use  to  society  at 
large  and  have  spared  no  effort  to  convince  society 
that  their  supreme  desire  is  to  be  of  service  to  all 
classes  and  to  all  mankind.  They  have  cultivated 
the    most    intimate    relations    with    the   secondary 

f  150  1 


COLLEGE     AND     UNIVERSITY 

schools  and  have  adjusted  their  courses  to  meet  and 
supplement  those  of  the  schools.  Especially  in  the 
West,  though  there  is  no  organic  and  compulsory 
unity  in  the  educational  system  of  any  state,  the 
universities  have  by  wise  adaptation  to  circum- 
stances secured  a  practical  unity  between  themselves 
and  the  secondary  schools  almost  as  complete  as 
that  between  the  secondary  schools  and  the  lower 
schools.  More  than  that,  many  of  the  professors 
in  the  universities  have  joined  in  every  effort  to 
complete  and  elevate  the  public  school  systems  of 
the  states,  so  that,  to  a  degree  never  known  before, 
there  is  a  feeling  of  sympathy  and  community  of 
interest  between  the  teachers  of  all  grades  of  school 
from  the  kindergarten  up  to  the  graduate  school  of 
the  university.  I  think  we  may,  without  boastful- 
ness,  claim  that  the  universities  of  the  West  have 
been  conspicuous  in  this  useful  work.  Perhaps 
nothing  that  they  have  done  will  be  seen  ultimately 
to  have  been  of  more  permanent  value  to  the  nation. 
It  is  gratifying  to  see  that  this  new  movement  on 
the  part  of  the  universities  has  met  with  a  most 
hearty  response  from  the  public.  The  amount  of 
money  which  has  been  poured  into  the  treasuries  of 
our  universities  during  the  last  few  years  astonishes 
even  the  Europeans  with  their  richly  endowed 
institutions.  I  have  heard  it  estimated  by  a  careful 
scholar  that  since  1869  Harvard  University  has 
received  in  gifts  a  sum  equal  to  fifty  dollars  for  each 
day  of  these  thirty  years.     The  civic  pride  of  this 

[151] 


SELECTED      ADDRESSES 


city,  than  which  there  is  no  stronger  or  more  enthu- 
siastic in  any  city  of  the  world,  has  reared  these 
palaces  of  learning  and  enabled  this  University  in 
less  than  a  decade  to  reach  a  development  for  which 
Harvard  had  to  wait  two  centuries  and  a  half.  The 
Legislature  of  this  state,  representing  a  constituency 
mainly  of  farmers,  to  whom  the  earning  of  a  dollar 
means  much  toil  and  sweat,  so  appreciates  its  State 
University  that  it  cheerfully  voted  this  spring  to 
raise  by  taxation  about  $700,000  in  aid  of  it.  The 
State  of  Nebraska,  which  only  a  few  years  ago  was 
asking  charity  for  its  destitute  farmers,  whose  crops 
drought  and  grasshoppers  had  destroyed,  has  just 
voted  a  tax  of  a  mill  on  a  dollar  for  the  support  of 
its  University.  Wisconsin  has  for  years  been  raising 
by  taxation  $200,000  or  more  a  year,  and  Michigan 
has  just  voted,  with  only  four  dissenting  voices  in 
its  legislature,  a  tax  yielding  about  $275,000  a  year 
for  the  University's  support.  Public  and  private 
generosity  thus  rival  each  other  in  the  -hearty  support 
of  the  universities  which  have  had  the  wisdom  to 
dedicate  themselves  with  all  their  resources  to  the 
public  service. 

.  Is  there  any  more  auspicious  sign  for  the  future  of 
nur  country  than  the  readiness  of  our  people  to  pour 
jout  their  money  like  water  for  the  support  of  their 
institutions  of  learning,  and  the  eager  desire  of  our 
scholars  and  teachers  to  perfect  our  educational 
systems?  Our  universities  have  by  no  means  reached 
their  ideal  development.     All  of  us   who  are  con- 

[152] 


COLLEGE     AND     UNIVERSITY 

cerned  in  the  administration  of  them  see  room  for 
many  improvements.  But  when  we  see  what  fifty 
years  have  accomplished  in  the  evohition  of  the  new 
university  from  the  old  and  stereotyped  college,  we 
take  courage  and  press  on.  Still  larger  resources 
must  be  made  available  for  continuing  the  progress 
which  has  been  begun.  But  we  are  confident  that 
the  American  people,  who,  whatever  their  short- 
comings, have  a  passion  for  education,  will  not  stay 
their  hands  until  some  of  our  universities  have 
attained  an  excellence  which  shall  draw  to  them 
eager  scholars  from  all  parts  of  the  civilized  world. 
It  needs  no  prophet's  eye  to  see  and  no  flatterer's 
tongue  to  tell  that  in  that  proud  day  this  shall  be 
one  of  the  shrines  to  which  the  feet  of  the  eager 
pilgrim  scholars  will  turn,  and  here  reverent  and 
grateful  mention  will  be  made  of  the  brilliant,  gener- 
ous, and  devoted  men  who  laid  the  foundations  of 
this  great  University. 


[153] 


VI 


A  MEMORIAL  DISCOURSE 

ON   THE   LIFE   AND   SERVICES   OF   HENRY   SIMMONS 

FRIEZE,  LL.D.,   PROFESSOR   OF  THE   LATIN 

LANGUAGE  AND  LITERATURE  IN  THE 

UNIVERSITY  FROM  1854  TO  1889 


MARCH   16,   1890 

DELIVERED  IN  UNIVERSITY  HALL  BY  REQUEST 
OF  THE  SENATE 


VI 
HENRY  SIMMONS  FRIEZE 


We  have  gathered  here  to-day  with  that  deep 
sense  of  loss  which  has  weighed  so  heavily  upon  us 
for  the  past  few  weeks.  Daily  as  we  enter  these 
grounds  or  pass  through  these  halls,  we  miss  the 
elastic  step,  the  radiant  face,  the  genial  word  of  him 
who  for  more  than  a  generation,  as  the  inspiring 
teacher,  the  helpful  colleague,  the  charming  friend, 
has  left  a  benediction  on  every  life  he  has  touched. 
For  five  and  thirty  years  he  has  formed  so  large  a 
part  of  the  University  that  we  who  are  left  behind 
feel  in  our  sorrow  and  privation  as  though  a  portion 
of  the  very  life  of  the  University  had  been  cleft 
away.  His  loving  and  lovable  nature  drew  those 
of  us  who  had  known  him  longest  and  best  so  close 
to  him  that  it  often  seems  to  us  as  though  in  his 
death  something  was  riven  from  the  inmost  being  of 
each  of  us. 

We  have  felt  that  we  could  not  deny  ourselves  the 
sad  pleasure  of  coming  up  to  this  place,  where  we 
have  listened  in  days  gone  by  to  his  words  of  in- 
struction and  cheer,  to  recall  the  chief  events  of  his 
life  and  the  traits  of  his  character,  and  to  express 
our  appreciation  of  the  man  and  of  his  great  services 
to  the  University.  In  accepting  your  invitation  to 
speak  in  your  behalf  on  this  occasion,  I  am  painfully 

[  157] 


SELECTED      ADDRESSES 


aware  how  inadequate  an  idea  any  picture  I  can 
draw  can  give  to  a  stranger  of  the  combination  of 
beauty  and  of  power  which  was  found  in  his  deHcate 
and  noble  soul.  But  I  am  sure  that  the  memories 
of  his  old  friends  will  fill  the  outline  which  I  may 
sketch  with  a  more  lifelike  portrait  than  pen  or 
pencil  or  chisel  can  produce. 

Henry  Simmons  Frieze  was  born  in  Boston,  Mass., 
September  15,  1817,  where  his  father,  Jacob  Frieze, 
resided  for  a  brief  period.  His  great-grandfather 
was  German  by  birth.  His  father,  who  w^as  a  native, 
and  for  most  of  his  life  a  resident,  of  Providence,  R.I., 
was  a  man  of  marked  intellectual  vigor.  The  years 
of  the  early  manhood  of  Jacob  Frieze  were  given  to 
teaching.  Then  he  entered  the  ministry  of  the 
Universalist  denomination  and  preached  until  an 
affection  of  the  throat  compelled  him  to  desist. 
He  was  settled  over  parishes  in  Milford  and  Marlboro, 
Mass.,  and  Pawtucket,  R.I.  Later  he  was  engaged 
in  editorial  work  on  newspapers  in  Providence 
and  distinguished  himself  in  the  production  of 
political  pamphlets,  an  agency  which  fifty  years  ago 
was  largely  employed  in  political  campaigns  in 
Rhode  Island,  as  it  had  formerly  been  in  England. 
He  wielded  a  sharp  and  caustic  pen  and  was  a 
formidable  antagonist  in  debate.  He  played  a 
considerable  part  within  my  recollection  in  the 
public  affairs  of  Rhode  Island.  From  him  the  son 
inherited  his  intellectual  activity,  and  also  his  cour- 
age, in  which,  with  all  his  gentleness  of  manner,  he 

[158] 


HENRY     SIMMONS     FRIEZE 


was  by  no  means  wanting.  From  him  too  he  in- 
herited his  musical  gifts.  But  from  his  mother, 
Betsey  Slade,  of  Somerset,  Mass.,  a  woman  of 
devout,  sweet,  and  retiring  nature,  he  received  that 
deHcacy  and  gentleness  and  modesty  which  were  so 
characteristic  of  him.  The  influences  in  the  home 
were  both  stimulating  and  refining. 

But  circumstances  required  the  boy  to  become  at 
an  early  age  a  bread-winner.  While  yet  a  lad  he 
was  placed  as  a  clerk  with  an  excellent  Christian 
man  in  Providence,  for  whom  he  ever  retained  a 
strong  affection.  His  taste  and  talent  for  music 
made  him  somewhat  conspicuous  as  a  musician 
while  he  was  still  young.  Finding  a  remunerative 
position  at  Newport  as  organist  and  teacher  of 
music,  he  removed  thither.  By  the  urgent  advice 
of  some  of  his  cultivated  friends  in  that  city,  who 
recognized  his  talent  and  his  promise,  he  formed 
the  purpose,  though  not  until  he  was  nearly  nineteen 
years  of  age,  of  gaining  a  college  education.  While 
supporting  himself  by  the  exercise  of  his  musical 
gifts  he  hastily  and  imperfectly  prepared  himself 
for  college  in  the  school  of  Joseph  Joslin.  During 
his  residence  at  Newport  he  was  confirmed  as  a 
communicant  in  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church, 
to  whose  interests  he  was  in  the  most  catholic  spirit 
devoted  through  his  whole  life. 

In  September,  1837,  when  he  was  just  entering 
on  his  twenty-first  year,  he  was  admitted  to  the 
Freshman  class  in  Brown  University.     He  was  one 

[159] 


SELECTED      ADDRESSES 


of  the  oldest  students  in  the  class.  He  used  to  say 
that  the  recollection  of  the  amiable  leniency  of  his 
examiners,  to  which  he  thought  he  owed  his  admission, 
always  inclined  him  to  be  charitable  in  judging 
the  applicants  who  in  all  these  years  came  to  him 
to  be  examined  in  Latin  for  entrance  to  this  Uni- 
versity. Though  he  was  at  first  somewhat  embar- 
rassed in  his  college  work  by  his  lack  of  thorough 
instruction  in  school  —  since  from  the  age  of  twelve 
or  thirteen  to  the  age  of  nineteen  he  had  been 
constantly  engaged  in  earning  his  livelihood  —  his 
talent  and  industry  soon  placed  him  at  the  head  of 
his  class,  the  position  which  he  held  at  graduation. 
His  work  was  excellent  in  all  departments,  but 
especially  in  the  languages.  He  had  less  aptitude 
for  mathematics  than  for  other  branches,  but  by 
dint  of  his  diligence  he  succeeded  well  even  in  his 
mathematical  studies.  One  of  his  classmates,  Rev. 
Dr.  Kendall  Brooks,  writes  me,  "He  had  great 
dignity,  not  only  of  manner,  but  of  spirit  also,  and 
while  he  was  not  intimate  with  many  students,  he 
was  profoundly  respected  by  every  one."  He  was 
organist  and  chorister  of  St.  John's  church,  and 
Superintendent  of  the  Sunday  school  during  his 
entire  college  course.  He  was  enabled  by  his  ser- 
vices as  organist  and  as  a  teacher  of  music  to  pay 
his  college  expenses  and  to  assist  needy  relatives. 
It  is  clear  that  he  must  have  been  very  industrious 
to  maintain  his  high  college  rank  and  to  perform 
so  much  outside  labor.     Moreover,  during  a  part  of 

[160] 


HENRY     SIMMONS     FRIEZE 


his  Junior  year,  owing  to  some  disease  of  his  eyes, 
he  was  unable  to  use  them  in  study.  Many  of  his 
lessons  he  learned  by  having  them  read.  Having 
received  the  highest  honor  at  the  Junior  exhibition, 
the  Latin  oration,  he  was  unable  to  touch  pen  to 
paper  in  the  preparation  of  it,  but  dictated  the  whole 
of  it.  In  all  his  college  days  he  was  conspicuously 
active  and  faithful  in  the  exercise  of  a  positive 
Christian  influence.  During  his  Senior  year  there 
came  upon  him  the  gravest  of  sorrows  in  the  sudden 
death  of  one  who  was  dearer  to  him  than  his  own  life. 
He  bowed  with  Christian  submission  to  the  heavy 
affliction,  but  the  chastening  memory  of  it  long  left 
its  impress  upon  him.  The  accounts  that  we  get 
of  his  undergraduate  career  give  us  the  picture  of  a 
gifted,  earnest,  devout,  hard-working  and  successful 
student,  who  was  learning  not  only  what  the  college, 
whose  standards  were  high  and  exacting,  could  teach, 
but  also  the  self-reliance  and  discipline  which 
dependence  on  his  own  toil  for  support  and  sore 
providential  trials  brought  him  in  large  measure. 

Immediately  on  his  graduation  he  was  appointed 
tutor  in  Brown  University,  and  held  that  position 
for  three  years.  His  duties  consisted  mainly  in  the 
teaching  of  Latin.  Rev.  Dr.  Fisher,  of  the  Yale 
Theological  Seminary,  who  was  one  of  his  pupils  at 
that  time,  writes  thus  of  his  recollections  of  the  young 
tutor's  instruction. 

"His  scholarship  appeared  to  me  to  be  faultless. 
Nothing  in  the  author  whom  we  studied  escaped  his 

[  161  ] 


SELECTED      ADDRESSES 


attention.  It  was  impossible  for  any  one  of  us  to 
prepare  perfectly  for  a  recitation.  There  would  be 
questions,  fair  questions  too,  which  we  had  not 
foreseen.  His  ideal  of  accuracy  it  was  in  vain  for 
us  to  attempt  to  reach.  He  always  followed  the 
translation  made  by  a  student  with  a  translation  of 
his  own,  and  this  was  uniformly,  if  not  more  correct, 
more  tasteful  and  finished  than  any  of  us  by  the 
utmost  painstaking  could  present.  Mr.  Frieze  was 
a  gentleman  and  had  a  certain  refinement  and 
reserve  which  kept  off  undue  familiarity.  I  think 
of  him,  as  I  always  have  thought,  as  a  teacher  of 
rare  qualifications.  I  owe  him  a  debt  which  it  has 
ever  given  me  much  pleasure  to  acknowledge." 

In  1844  Mr.  Frieze  became  associated  with  a 
classmate  in  the  conduct  of  the  University  Grammar 
School  in  Providence,  and  continued  in  that  work 
for  the  next  ten  years. 

In  1847  a  happy  marriage  gave  him  the  delights 
of  a  home,  which  with  his  affectionate  nature  he 
was  so  fitted  to  enjoy  and  to  gladden.^  Though 
our  hearts  run  out  with  tenderest  sympathy  to  his 
stricken  wife  and  daughters,  we  may  not  invade 
the  sanctity  of  their  fresh  grief  even  to  describe 
the  sweet  and  beautiful  spirit  of  domestic  love, 
which  has  lent  such  a  charm  to  the  quiet  life  of  their 
home. 

The  University  Grammar  School  was  composed 
largely  of  pupils  who  were  preparing  to  enter  Brown 

» August  16,  1847,  he  married  Miss  Anna  B.  Roffee,  of  Providence. 
[  162  ] 


HENRY     SIMMONS     FRIEZE 


University.  It  soon  acquired  a  most  enviable 
reputation.  It  was  my  good  fortune  to  enter  that 
school  in  the  late  autumn  of  1844  and  to  enjoy  the 
instruction  of  Mr.  Frieze  in  Greek  and  Latin  until 
the  following  July.  No  event  of  my  life  ever  gave 
me  a  stronger  intellectual  stimulus  than  the  contact 
with  that  inspiring  young  teacher  during  those  few 
months.  My  heart  was  at  once  bound  to  him  with 
an  affection  which  has  grown  stronger  and  stronger 
through  these  five  and  forty  years.  Such  teaching 
as  his  was  a  revelation  to  me.  How  contagious  was 
his  Hterary  enthusiasm!  So  brilhant,  so  stirring, 
so  inspiring  was  all  his  instruction  that  the  class 
seemed  to  be  surcharged  with  his  wonderful  nervous 
activity.  When  in  reciting  the  lesson  we  had 
exhausted  our  slender  stock  of  knowledge,  which 
after  diligent  study  we  had  supposed  with  some 
complacency  to  be  of  considerable  value,  how  were 
we  often  startled  by  a  whole  volley  of  questions, 
partly  revealing  what  was  new  to  us,  and  still  more 
stimulating  us  to  search  before  the  next  day  for  what 
was  not  revealed.  When  the  exercise  was  closed, 
the  blood  was  in  our  faces  and  our  hearts  were  beat- 
ing fast  as  though  we  had  come  from  a  contest 
on  the  ball  ground.  How  vividly  I  recall  him  in  the 
beauty  of  early  manhood,  as,  with  his  dark,  rich, 
curly  locks  falling  on  his  neck,  his  eyes  gleaming 
through  his  spectacles,  he  conducted  his  classes. 
He  paced  almost  constantly  up  and  down  the  plat- 
form.    Now  and  then  he  halted  suddenly  to  pierce 

[163] 


SELECTED      ADDRESSES 


some  stupid  blunder  with  a  sharp  question  as  with 
a  winged  arrow,  or  again  when  we  made  a  happy 
rendering  of  some  fine  passage  in  Vergil  his  face 
beamed  with  a  radiance  which  was  our  sufficient 
reward.  His  mien  and  bearing  seemed  to  impart 
to  the  class  and  to  the  whole  school  the  spirit  of  his 
overflowing  vitality  and  scholarly  enthusiasm.  He 
seemed  to  me  the  ideal  teacher. 

It  is  not  strange  that  when  in  1854  a  vacancy 
occurred  in  the  chair  of  Latin  in  this  University, 
Professor  Boise,  who  had  been  familiar  with  Mr. 
Frieze's  career  as  a  student  and  a  teacher,  should 
have  directed  the  attention  of  the  University  au- 
thorities to  his  friend.  Mr.  Frieze  was  at  once 
appointed  to  the  position,  which  he  held  until  the 
day  of  his  death.  It  was  a  rare  fortune  which 
brought  to  the  University  in  its  early  days  two  such 
classical  teachers  as  Professors  Boise  and  Frieze. 
They  so  impressed  themselves  upon  the  Institution 
in  its  plastic  and  formative  days,  they  so  com- 
mended the  value  of  the  studies  committed  to  their 
care,  they  invested  what  were  often  contemptuously 
and  ignorantly  called  "the  dead  languages"  with 
such  a  charm,  they  so  illustrated  in  their  own  minds 
the  cultivating  and  refining  power  of  the  ancient 
literatures  that  from  the  very  beginning  of  their 
labors  an  enthusiastic  love  for  classical  culture  was 
nurtured  in  this  University,  and  it  has  continued 
to  this  day. 

After  discharging  the  duties  of  his  new  chair  for  a 
[  164] 


HENRY     SIMMONS     FRIEZE 


year,  Professor  Frieze  obtained  leave  of  absence  in 
order  to  gratify  a  long  cherished  desire  of  visiting 
Europe  for  the  purposes  of  observation  and  study. 
His  mind,  so  keenly  appreciative  of  all  the  beauties 
of  art  and  of  nature,  and  so  thoroughly  trained  and 
disciplined,  reaped  the  most  abundant  fruits  from 
the  visit  abroad.  He  attended  lectures  at  the 
University  of  Berhn,  afterwards  visited  Italy,  and 
returned  homeward  through  France  and  England. 
Before  he  started,  President  Tappan  had  imparted 
to  him  something  of  his  enthusiastic  admiration 
for  German  scholarship  and  German  methods  of 
education.  What  he  saw  with  his  own  eyes  more 
than  confirmed  his  previous  impressions  of  the  great 
excellence  of  the  German  gymnasial  and  university 
training,  and  after  his  return  he  never  ceased  to 
commend  the  application  of  German  methods,  so 
far  as  practicable,  to  the  work  of  our  high  schools 
and  universities.  One  can  imagine  rather  than 
describe  what  delights  and  inspirations  a  European 
journey  furnished  to  a  soul  with  such  a  passion  as 
his  for  music  as  well  as  for  the  beauties  of  painting 
and  sculpture  and  architecture.  President  White, 
who  was  one  of  his  travelling  companions  in  Germany 
and  Italy,  writes  to  me  with  a  delighted  recollection 
of  Mr.  Frieze's  animated  and  instructive  conver- 
sation on  questions  of  Roman  life  and  character, 
and  especially  on  music,  and  says,  "I  have  always 
believed  that  had  he  been  born  in  Germany  he  would 
have  ranked  with  great  composers  and  performers." 

[165] 


SELECTED      ADDRESSES 


He  tells  a  pleasing  story  of  their  travelling  on  a  train 
from  Dresden  to  Prague  with  some  Bohemian  sol- 
diers, who  were  singing  plaintive  songs,  and  Mr. 
Frieze  jotted  down  the  notes  as  they  sang,  and 
reproduced  the  songs  afterwards.  Nothing  that  was 
worth  seeing  or  hearing,  we  may  be  sure,  escaped  his 
alert  and  active  mind.  We  who  are  so  familiar 
with  the  extraordinary  skill  which  he  attained  as  an 
organist  and  a  pianist,  and  with  some  of  his  musical 
compositions,  cannot  deem  President  White's  esti- 
mate of  his  musical  ability  at  all  extravagant. 

At  his  suggestion  the  Regents  placed  a  sum  of 
money  at  his  disposal  for  the  purchase  in  Europe 
of  casts,  statuettes,  and  photographs  illustrative  of 
archaeology  and  ancient  art.  Thus  was  laid  the 
foundation  of  our  Museum  of  Art,  for  whose  subse- 
quent development  he  worked  so  assiduously  during 
the  years  that  followed.  Its  growth  has  been  due 
more  to  his  labors  than  to  those  of  any  other  person. 
It  was  largely  through  his  influence  that  the  eminent 
sculptor,  Randolph  Rogers,  decided  to  give  us  the 
casts  of  his  works,  and  that  other  valuable  works 
of  art  have  been  presented  to  the  University. 

He  brought  back  from  Europe  higher  ideals  of 
his  own  work  and  much  broader  conceptions  of  the 
function  of  this  University.  He  used  in  conversation 
to  reproach  himself  that  when  in  1851  Dr.  Wayland 
unfolded  his  large  views  of  what  our  American 
colleges  and  universities  should  attempt,  he  had 
not  acquired  breadth  enough  to  sympathize  with  the 

[166] 


HENRY     SIMMONS     FRIEZE 


ideas  of  that  great  teacher.  But  after  coming  here 
he  was  awakened  by  President  Tappan's  vigorous 
expositions  of  educational  doctrines,  which  were 
quite  in  harmony  with  those  of  Dr.  Wayland,  to  a 
clear  perception  of  their  worth.  After  his  observa- 
tion of  European  universities  he  was  ever  an  enthu- 
siastic supporter  of  the  plans  on  which  fortunately 
for  us  our  first  President  shaped  the  life  of  this  Uni- 
versity during  the  eleven  years  of  his  administration. 
The  spolia  opima  which  he  brought  from  his 
literary,  aesthetic,  and  archaeological  studies  abroad 
added  a  new  charm  to  his  teaching.  In  his  presence, 
in  his  class-room,  even  the  raw  and  untrained  student 
felt  at  once  the  subtle  influence  of  the  spirit  of  culture 
which  emanated  from  the  instructor.  The  fineness 
of  literary  perception,  the  delicacy  of  taste,  which 
revealed  themselves  through  all  his  interpretation 
of  the  ancient  masters  of  thought,  polished  and  ele- 
vated while  they  instructed  the  class.  His  exalted 
ethical  nature  led  him  also  to  impress  upon  his 
pupils  without  cant  or  platitudes,  but  in  the  most 
natural  and  effective  manner,  the  moral,  the  heroic 
qualities  of  the  ancient  characters  of  whom  they 
were  reading.  He  made  these  characters  living, 
real  persons,  who  had  their  messages  for  our  times 
and  for  us.  The  old  literature  was  made  vital  with 
a  fresh  and  throbbing  life,  that  poured  its  currents 
into  the  lives  of  the  youthful  students  of  our  day. 
Withal  there  was  in  him  the  inexpressible  charm  of 
the  finest  breeding,  which  wielded  a  power  mightier 

[167] 


SELECTED      ADDRESSES 


than  that  of  official  authority  even  over  the  rudest 
and  most  uncultivated  student.  How  many  a 
graduate  have  we  heard  say  that  two  impressions 
above  all  they  brought  from  Professor  Frieze's 
class-room;  namely,  that  he  was  the  perfect  gentle- 
man, and  that  he  had  the  finest  culture.  Who  can 
measure  the  refining  influence  of  such  a  mind  and 
character  on  the  hundreds  of  men  and  women  who 
have  passed  under  his  hands? 

He  not  only  won  the  admiration  of  his  pupils  as 
the  accompHshed  scholar  and  gentleman,  but  he 
also  won  their  affection  as  their  most  faithful  friend. 
His  sympathy  was  so  quick  and  expressive  that 
they  were  drawn  to  him  with  a  strong  attachment. 
In  his  later  years  this  love  of  his  students  for  him 
was  mingled  with  a  sort  of  tender  and  filial  reverence, 
which  it  was  very  charming  to  behold.  It  would 
have  been  simply  impossible  for  any  one  of  them  de- 
signedly to  do  anything  which  would  have  caused  him 
the  least  annoyance  or  to  withhold  any  service  which 
would  afford  him  gratification.  This  affectionate 
devotion  of  his  pupils  was  to  him,  as  it  is  to  every 
teacher,  the  most  gratifying  reward  of  all  liis  labors. 

On  the  resignation  of  President  Haven,  in  1869,  he 
was  appointed  Acting  President  of  the  University. 
His  characteristic  modesty  led  him  to  hesitate  about 
accepting  the  position,  but  he  finally  yielded  to  the 
persuasion  of  the  Board  of  Regents.  The  two  years 
during  which  he  was  the  chief  executive  were  marked 
by  important  events  in  the  history  of  the  Institution. 

[168] 


HENRY     SIMMONS     FRIEZE 


In  1870  women  were  admitted  to  all  Departments 
of  the  University.  This  step  was  taken  by  the 
Regents  rather  in  deference  to  public  opinion  than 
to  the  wishes  of  the  Faculties.  I  think  that  Professor 
Frieze,  like  most  of  his  colleagues,  assented  to  the 
action  of  the  Regents  rather  than  urged  it.  To 
tell  the  truth,  there  were  many  misgivings  here  on 
the  ground  concerning  the  experiment  of  admitting 
women  to  these  halls.  But  Mr.  Frieze  and  his 
colleagues  generally  soon  became  convinced  that  the 
action  of  the  Board  was  wise  and  he  did  all  in  his 
power  to  make  the  experiment  successful.  I  never 
heard  him  speak  of  the  presence  of  women  in  the 
University  except  with  the  greatest  satisfaction. 
Another  important  step  was  due  altogether  to  the 
suggestion  of  the  Acting  President.  That  was  the 
establishment  of  the  so-called  diploma  relation  with 
the  preparatory  schools.  The  plan  which  he  pro- 
posed and  which  was  adopted  in  1871  was  an  adapta- 
tion to  our  circumstances  of  the  German  method 
of  receiving  students  into  the  universities  from  the 
gymnasiums.  No  measure  has  been  adopted  by 
the  University  authorities  in  many  years  which  has 
been  more  beneficial  to  both  the  University  and  the 
schools,  and  none  which  has  been  more  widely  or 
profitably  imitated  by  other  universities. 

It  was  owing  to  the  prompt  action  of  Dr.  Frieze 
and  the  generosity  of  his  friend,  Philo  Parsons, 
that  the  library  of  Professor  Rau,  of  Heidelberg, 
was  secured  for  us.     It  was  at  the  instance  of  the 

[169] 


SELECTED      ADDRESSES 


Acting  President  that  the  age  for  admission  to  the 
Literary  Department  was  raised  from  fourteen  to 
sixteen  years,  that  music  was  introduced  into  the 
chapel  service,  that  the  custom  of  furnishing  a  dinner 
to  the  alumni  and  friends  of  the  University  on 
Commencement  Day  was  introduced,  and  that  with 
the  hope  of  creating  a  common  interest  between 
the  several  Departments  an  attempt  was  made, 
though  afterwards  abandoned,  to  observe  a  Uni- 
versity Day  by  public  exercises.  It  was  during  his 
term  of  office  that  the  Legislature  voted  the  sum  of 
seventy-five  thousand  dollars  for  the  erection  of  the 
main  building  between  the  two  wings  of  University 
Hall,  and  so  established  the  happy  precedent  which 
every  subsequent  Legislature  has  followed  in  furnish- 
ing liberal  means  for  the  erection  of  needed  buildings 
for  the  University.  The  power  of  Dr.  Frieze's 
active  and  fertile  mind  was  felt  in  every  Department 
of  the  Institution.  He  was  afterwards  twice  called 
to  the  position  of  Acting  President  during  the  absence 
of  the  President,  once  serving  from  June,  1880,  to 
February,  1882,  and  again  from  October,  1887,  to 
January,  1888.  The  heavy  wear  and  tear  of  ad- 
ministrative labors  from  1869  to  1871,  rendered 
perhaps  more  difficult  by  the  fact  that  he  was  known 
to  be  discharging  them  only  temporarily,  made  a 
serious  draught  upon  his  not  very  robust  constitu- 
tion. No  sooner  was  an  incumbent  of  the  Presidency, 
whom  he  with  the  partiality  of  early  friendship  had 
commended,  chosen  by  the  Regents  than  he  sought 

[170] 


HENRY     SIMMONS     FRIEZE 


and  obtained  leave  of  absence  in  order  to  visit 
Europe  again.  He  and  his  family  remained  abroad 
two  years.  He  spent  his  first  winter  at  Tubingen, 
diligently  studying  Sanscrit  under  that  great  scholar, 
Professor  Roth,  attending  lectures  at  his  pleasure 
in  the  University  of  Tubingen,  and  mingling  freely 
in  society  with  the  professors.  He  afterwards 
spent  a  long  time  at  the  charming  spot,  which  Presi- 
dent Tappan  subsequently  chose  as  his  home,  Vevey. 
He  travelled  through  Switzerland,  went  again  to  the 
chief  Italian  cities,  remained  for  several  weeks  at 
Munich,  and  visited  among  other  places  Paris, 
Dusseldorf,  Berlin,  and  Oxford.  His  object  in  this 
tour  was  not  so  much  to  devote  himself  to  study 
as  to  seek  tranquil  enjoyment  and  recuperation  in 
the  midst  of  beautiful  scenery  and  those  aesthetic 
delights  which  fine  music  and  the  galleries  of  art 
afforded  him.  He  came  home  in  the  summer  of 
1873,  refreshed  and  invigorated,  and  ready  to  resume 
with  zest  the  duties  of  his  chair. 

After  his  return  his  ideal  of  the  proper  work  of  his 
department  and  of  the  University  was  even  broader 
and  richer  than  before.  He  gave  instruction  to 
advanced  classes  chiefly  in  the  works  of  Tacitus,  of 
Seneca,  and  of  Pliny  the  Younger.  He  lectured  and 
commented  on  these  authors  in  a  very  free,  large, 
and  suggestive  manner.  He  discoursed  with  equal 
fervor  on  the  pregnant,  compact,  sententious  style 
of  Tacitus,  on  the  lofty  ethics  of  the  stoic  philosophy 
as  interpreted  by  Seneca,  and  on  the  high  breeding 

[171] 


SELECTED      ADDRESSES 


and  varied  culture  of  that  fine  Roman  gentleman, 
the  proconsul  of  Pontus  and  Bithynia.  He  has  also 
lectured  for  many  years  past  on  the  history  of  ancient 
art.  He  found  opportunity  to  set  forth  in  his 
lectures  the  functions  of  the  several  fine  arts,  to 
expound  the  canons  of  art  criticism,  to  direct  his 
pupils  to  the  illustrations  of  art  to  be  found  in  our 
Library  and  our  Museum  of  Art,  and  to  give  them 
the  results  of  his  careful  and  appreciative  studies 
in  the  museums  of  Europe. 

In  his  teaching  of  Latin  authors,  though  he  always 
insisted  on  that  accurate  grammatical  knowledge, 
without  which  one  cannot  be  said  to  know  a  language, 
and  though  he  did  not  in  the  least  undervalue  the 
importance  of  exhaustive  philological  training  for 
some  students,  he  was  always  inclined,  as  has  been 
intimated,  to  concentrate  the  attention  of  his  pupils 
chiefly  on  the  literary  and  ethical  lessons  to  be 
drawn  from  the  Latin  writers.  These  lessons,  he 
believed,  were  what  all  except  the  few  who  were  to 
be  technical  philologists  most  needed.  More  and 
more  in  his  later  years  he  was  disposed  to  emphasize 
this  idea.  He  insisted  that  Latin  should  be  so  taught 
as  to  form  a  solid  foundation  for  the  literary  culture 
of  college  students,  and  that  the  importance  of  so 
teaching  it  was  rapidly  increasing  from  the  fact 
that,  especially  in  the  West,  large  numbers  read 
Latin,  who  read  no  Greek.  He  was  ever  urging 
pupils  to  take  Greek  with  the  Latin.  He  regretted 
the   tendency   among  classical   teachers  to   confine 

[172] 


HENRY     SIMMONS     FRIEZE 


themselves  to  one  of  these  two  ancient  languages. 
He  thought  that  by  excessive  specializing  in  their 
work  they  incurred  the  danger  of  becoming  narrow, 
and  that  it  would  be  better  if,  as  in  German  uni- 
versities, our  classical  professors  gave  some  instruc- 
tion in  both  literatures.  But  upon  no  point  was  he 
accustomed  to  dwell  in  these  later  years  with  so 
much  fervor  as  upon  the  transcendent  importance 
of  teaching  Latin  literature  not  merely  as  a  collection 
of  works  of  gifted  men,  but  as  the  expression  of  the 
life  of  the  great  Roman  nation,  uttering  itself  in 
history,  philosophy,  and  poetry.  Upon  the  exposi- 
tion of  it  he  would  turn  all  the  illumination  to  be 
furnished  by  Roman  archaeology  and  Roman  art. 
According  to  his  conception  it  was  not  Latin  that 
we  should  study  so  much  as  Roman,  the  achieve- 
ments, the  spirit,  the  vital  power  of  the  Roman  race. 
Nor  should  we  teach  and  study  the  literature  of 
Rome,  with  whatever  enthusiasm  and  admiration, 
merely  as  a  beautiful  creation  of  a  dead  past,  but 
rather  as  the  flowering  of  an  imperishable  life,  whose 
vital  currents  have  been  flowing  through  all  the 
Western  civilization  of  these  eighteen  centuries,  and 
are  still  beating  in  the  pulses  of  this  nineteenth 
century.  It  was  the  Rome  which  has  persisted 
with  a  power  that  no  Goth  or  Vandal  could  over- 
come, the  Rome  which  helps  shape  and  fertilize 
our  art,  our  laws,  our  literatures  to-day,  the  Rome 
which  bids  fair  to  endure  when  every  vestige  of  her 
pfoudest   material   structures   shall   have   crumbled 

[173] 


SELECTED      ADDRESSES 


into  dust  —  it  was  that  great,  that  glorious,  that 
immortal  Rome,  which  he  sought  to  recreate  for  his 
loving  pupils. 

Dr.  Frieze  discharged  the  debt  which  every  man  is 
said  to  owe  to  his  profession  by  preparing  editions 
of  the  complete  works  of  Vergil  and  of  the  tenth  and 
twelfth  books  of  Quintilian.  These  made  his  name 
familiar  to  students  throughout  the  land.  His 
accurate  scholarship  and  his  fine  literary  spirit  here 
as  elsewhere  characterized  his  work  and  commended 
it  to  the  approbation  of  our  best  classical  scholars. 
His  edition  of  Quintilian  was  the  first  prepared  to 
meet  the  wants  of  American  students.  He  had  a 
marked  fondness  for  Vergil.  I  have  sometimes 
thought  —  perhaps  it  is  only  a  fancy  —  that  he  was 
drawn  to  the  old  Latin  poet  by  a  certain  resemblance 
between  their  characters.  All  the  traditions  depict 
the  bard  of  Mantua  as  endowed  not  only  with  a 
graceful  and  beautiful  mind,  but  also  with  a  sweet, 
gentle,  modest,  affectionate  nature,  that  bound 
friends  to  him  by  the  strongest  ties.  I  am  sure 
there  are  some  of  us  here  who,  in  the  sense  of  our 
great  personal  loss,  have  found  springing  to  our  lips 
those  words  of  Horace  concerning  his  friend,  animae 
dimidium  meae.  We  should  certainly  place  him 
in  the  group  of  friends  to  whom  we  should  apply 
those  other  words  in  which  Horace  speaks  of  Vergil, 
Plotius,  and  Varius: 

"Animae,  quales  neque  candidiores 
Terra  tulit,  neque  quis  me  sit  devinctior  alter." 

[174] 


HENRY     SIMMONS     FRIEZE 


Dr.  Frieze  wrote  three  years  ago  a  charming  Httle 
volume  which  was  pubHshed  in  London  on  Giovanni 
Dupre,  the  eminent  ItaHan  sculptor.  It  set  forth 
in  flowing  and  simple  style  the  story  of  Dupre's  art 
life  and  revealed  the  author  in  every  page  as  the 
sympathetic  and  appreciative  lover  of  whatever  is 
pure  and  true  in  sculpture.  It  contained  also  the 
translation  of  two  lectures  on  Art  from  the  pen  of 
Dupre's  friend,  Augusto  Conti,  Professor  of  Philos- 
ophy in  the  University  of  Florence  and  President 
of  the  Academy  Delia  Crusca.  The  book  has  been 
received  with  much  favor  by  lovers  of  art  both  in 
England  and  in  this  country.  The  preparation  and 
publication  of  it  led  to  a  correspondence  between  the 
writer  and  Professor  Conti,  which  was  very  gratify- 
ing to  our  friend. 

Two  of  Dr.  Frieze's  addresses  may  be  here  men- 
tioned as  especially  worthy  of  notice.  One  was  his 
discourse  on  Dr.  Tappan,  delivered  in  1882,  and  the 
other  was  his  discourse  on  the  Relations  of  the  State 
University  to  Religion,  given  at  our  semi-centennial 
celebration  in  1887.  The  former  furnishes  the  best 
portraiture  ever  made  of  the  first  President  of  the 
University;  the  latter  the  ablest  discussion  ever 
bestowed  on  the  subject  it  handles.  Both  give  us 
fine  illustrations  of  the  author's  broad  conception 
of  the  function  of  a  State  University  and  of  his 
incisive,  vigorous,  and  effective  style  of  writing. 

Among  minor  productions  of  his  pen  may  be  named 
a  paper  on  Art  Museums  in  connection  with  Libraries, 

[  175] 


SELECTED   ADDRESSES 


furnished  for  the  Report  of  the  United  States  Com- 
missioner of  Education  for  1876,  the  descriptive 
Catalogue  of  our  Art  Museum,  which  shows  the 
marks  of  much  research,  and  feHcitous  articles  in 
the  University  journals  on  deceased  professors. 
The  last  article  from  his  hand,  written  only  a  few 
days  before  his  death  at  my  urgent  request,  was  a 
most  interesting  one,  suggested  by  the  presentation 
to  our  gallery  of  the  statue  of  General  Cass,  and 
published  in  the  Detroit  Free  Press. 

It  was  always  a  matter  of  regret  to  his  friends 
that  one  who  wrote  so  well  was  so  reluctant  to  write 
for  publication,  and  even  yet  more  reluctant  to 
speak  in  public.  His  modesty  led  him  to  underrate 
the  value  of  his  work,  and  he  was  extremely  averse 
to  what  he  called  the  drudgery  of  committing  his 
thoughts  to  paper.  Nothing  but  a  high  sense  of 
duty  could  overcome  his  almost  insuperable  reluc- 
tance, due  in  large  part  to  his  diffidence,  to  give  a 
public  address. 

While  conducting  his  own  department  with  the 
highest  aims,  Dr.  Frieze  was  ever  seeking  the  im- 
provement and  development  of  the  whole  University. 
He  was  continually  urging  the  hfting  of  the  Institu- 
tion out  of  the  narrow  ruts  of  a  small  local  college, 
and  giving  it  the  scope  and  elevation  and  power  of 
a  national  University.  He  never  came  so  near  the 
manifestation  of  impatience  verging  on  anger  as 
when  some  policy  was  proposed  which,  he  thought, 
would  bind  us  down  to  methods  that  we  ought  long 

[176] 


HENRY     SIMMONS     FRIEZE 


ago  to  have  outgrown  and  abandoned.  His  vision 
was  ever  stretching  out  to  a  broad  horizon  for  us. 
He  took  a  most  active  part  in  the  important  changes 
which  were  made  in  the  Literary  Department 
between  1875  and  1880.  He  was  an  earnest  advocate 
of  the  plan  adopted  in  1874  of  conferring  Master's 
degrees  only  on  examination,  and  also  of  the  rule 
allowing  candidates  for  Bachelor's  degrees  to  con- 
centrate their  work  in  the  latter  part  of  their  course 
on  some  three  branches  of  study.  He  favored 
warmly  the  introduction  of  the  elective  system  into 
the  courses  of  study  under  the  limitations  which 
are  now  in  force.  He  was  chiefly  instrumental  in 
persuading  the  Regents  to  appoint  a  Professor  of 
Music  who  should  give  instruction  in  the  history 
and  theory  of  music,  and  in  inducing  the  citizens 
of  Ann  Arbor  to  establish  a  school  for  vocal  and 
instrumental  practice.  Indeed,  during  all  the 
years  of  his  residence  here  he  was  ever  active  in 
stimulating  both  in  the  city  and  in  the  University 
the  study  of  music. 

He  was  a  stanch  advocate  of  the  policy  of  pre- 
serving the  unity  and  integrity  of  the  University 
by  retaining  all  its  Departments  here.  Whenever 
the  proposal  was  made,  as  it  was  repeatedly  made 
during  his  term  of  service,  to  transfer  a  part  of  our 
work  elsewhere,  he  most  earnestly  opposed  it. 
He  beheved  profoundly  that  in  the  concentration 
of  all  our  forces  here  lay  our  hope  of  giving  the 
greatest  efficiency  to  each  Department  and  to  the 

[177] 


SELECTED      ADDRESSES 


University  as  a  whole.  He  always  had  an  un- 
bounded faith  in  the  future  of  this  Institution.  In 
days  of  trial,  of  disappointments,  of  unjust  criticism 
of  the  University,  when  others  were  discouraged  and 
despondent,  although  such  misfortune  caused  his 
sensitive  nature  keen  suffering,  he  was  always  full 
of  hope  that  the  clouds  would  soon  give  way  to  sun- 
shine. He  was  sure  that  the  University  had  gained 
such  headway  that  no  obstacles  could  much  impede 
its  progress.  He  believed  that  it  was  so  deeply 
intrenched  in  the  affection  of  the  citizens  of  Michigan 
that  they  would  not  suffer  it  to  be  seriously  embar- 
rassed. How  often  have  I  heard  him  in  years  past 
say  that  there  was  no  reason  why  we  should  not  have 
two  thousand  students,  and  express  his  strong  desire 
to  live  to  see  such  an  attendance.  He  was  spared 
to  see  that  desire  gratified,  and  repeatedly  during 
the  early  weeks  of  this  University  year  he  dwelt 
with  delight  upon  the  fulfilment  of  his  prediction 
and  the  granting  of  his  wish.  Not  that  he  ever 
confounded  bigness  with  greatness,  or  desired  the 
reputation  of  the  University  to  rest  upon  the  number 
of  its  students  rather  than  upon  the  excellence  of 
its  work.  He  was  ever  devising  means  to  improve 
our  facilities  for  teaching  and  for  elevating  the 
character  of  our  instruction.  But  he  felt  that  with 
the  advantages  we  could  offer  we  deserved  to  have 
a  large  attendance,  and  that  such  a  proof  of  success 
as  the  presence  of  large  classes  affords  was  a  source 
of  strength  to  the  University. 

[178] 


HENRY     SIMMONS     FRIEZE 


His  mind  was  extremely  fertile  in  suggestions  for 
developing  the  growth  and  increasing  the  usefulness 
of  this  Institution.  He  had  observed  keenly  and 
studied  carefully  the  colleges  and  universities  of 
this  country  and  of  other  countries,  and  had  reflected 
much  on  the  causes  of  their  failures  and  successes. 
He  was  very  apt  in  drawing  lessons  from  their  history. 
He  seemed  to  be  ever  busy  in  seeking  to  apply  those 
lessons  to  our  conditions.  In  all  these  eighteen  years 
of  my  intimate  companionship  with  him  here,  in  our 
long  dail}^  walks  together,  the  burden  of  his  conversa- 
tion was  that  topic.  To  build  up  this  University,  that 
was  "his  meat  and  his  drink,"  the  dominant  thought 
of  his  life,  which  seemed  never  to  be  absent  from  his 
mind.  No  one  of  the  many  faithful  teachers  under 
this  roof  ever  gave  himself  with  more  supreme  devo- 
tion, body  and  soul,  to  the  interests  of  this  school 
of  learning.  And  no  man  since  the  days  of  that 
great  leader,  who  gave  to  the  University  in  so  large 
degree  its  present  form  and  spirit.  Dr.  Tappan,  has 
furnished  so  many  of  the  ideas  which  have  shaped 
and  enriched  its  life  as  Dr.  Frieze.  Into  its  Hfe  his 
very  mind  and  heart  have  been  builded. 

Because  his  knowledge  of  university  problems 
was  so  large,  and  his  judgment  was  regarded  by  his 
colleagues  as  so  sound,  he  has  always  exerted  a 
strong  influence  over  the  Literary  Faculty  and  over 
the  whole  University  Senate,  and  has  inspired  them 
with  his  own  hopefulness  concerning  the  future  of 
the  Institution  and  with  his  own  broad  views  of 

[179] 


SELECTED      ADDRESSES 


university  education.     It  need  hardly  be  said  that 
with    his  generous  conception    of   a  university  he 
cherished  ideals  which  have  not  yet  been  realized. 
He  looked  forward   with   fervent   desire  and   with 
strong  hope  to  the  establishment  of  a  school  of  art 
as  a  part  of  our  organization.     With  the  collections 
of  statuary  which  we  have  and  of  pictures  which  are 
to  come  to  us,  properly  housed  in  a  fitting  structure 
specially  prepared  for  them,  he  beheved  that  we 
might  well  set  up  such  a  school.     He  also  longed 
for  the  day  when  we  might  relegate  to  the  preparatory 
schools  or  to  colleges  the  work  now  done  in  the  first 
year,  and  perhaps  also  that  of  the  second  year  of 
the  Kterary  course,  and  organize  a  three  years'  course 
on  the  model  of  the  German  universities.     If  that 
plan  should  remain  impracticable,  as  for  the  present 
it  is,  he  favored  the  conferring  of  the  Bachelor's 
degree  at  the  end  of  three  years  of  undergraduate 
work,  so  that  students  might  also  complete  their 
professional  studies  before  they  were  too  far  advanced 
in  years.     He  advocated  this  plan  in  his  Report  as 
Acting  President  in  1881  in  one  of  the  ablest  papers 
ever  published  on  that  subject.     This  brief  rehearsal 
of  some  of  his  ideas  on  university  policy  may  indicate 
how  rich  his  mind  was  in  pregnant  suggestions  and 
how  fertile  in  the  conception  of  generous  and  far- 
reaching  plans.     Few  men  in  this  country  compre- 
hended so  thoroughly  the  problems  which  are  now 
set  before  the  American  universities  or  saw  so  clearly 
how  those  problems  should  be  solved. 

[  180  ] 


HENRY     SIMMONS     FRIEZE 


I  have  thus  rapidly  sketched  an  outline  of  the 
career  of  Dr.  Frieze  and  have  shown,  however  im- 
perfectly, the  spirit  in  which  he  wrought  through  his 
long  and  beautiful  life.  The  chief  traits  of  his  mind 
and  character  are  familiar  to  us  all. 

His  mind  was  one  of  great  activity  and  marked 
quickness  of  apprehension.  Possessed  of  a  highly 
nervous  temperament,  he  had  a  certain  restlessness 
of  body  and  mind.  This  did  not  betray  him,  as 
it  does  some,  into  disjointed  and  fragmentary  work, 
or  lead  him  to  hasty  and  immature  decisions,  but 
rather  revealed  itself  in  an  intellectual  eagerness 
and  alertness  and  celerity.  In  his  best  days  his 
enthusiasm  made  this  promptness  and  vivacity  of 
mental  action  contagious  and  highly  stimulating  to 
his  pupils. 

In  his  reading,  at  least  in  his  later  years,  he  fol- 
lowed the  old  maxim  of  multum,  non  multa.  He 
read  a  few  masters  thoroughly  rather  than  many 
books  superficially  or  even  rapidly.  But  having  in 
his  early  manhood  obtained  a  reading  knowledge 
of  the  French,  German,  Spanish,  and  Italian,  as 
well  as  of  the  ancient  classical  languages,  and  having 
strong  literary  and  aesthetic  tastes,  his  studies  in 
hterature  and  in  the  history  of  art,  and  especially 
of  music,  had  taken  a  pretty  wide  range.  In  any 
society  of  literary  scholars  or  artists  his  well-stored 
mind  was  sure  to  contribute  something  of  value  and 
of  interest  to  the  conversation.  He  left  upon  them 
as  upon  his  pupils  the  deep  impression  that  he  was 

[181] 


SELECTED      ADDRESSES 


a  man  of  rare  culture,  of  true  literary  instincts,  of 
the  finest  mental  texture,  of  rich  and  generous 
attainments.  But  his  literary  and  aesthetic  sense, 
his  artistic  feeling,  the  justness  of  his  critical  judg- 
ment were  more  conspicuous  than  his  learning. 

Perhaps  no  trait  in  his  mental  constitution  was 
more  marked  than  his  love  of  the  beautiful,  whether 
in  art  or  in  nature.  His  soul  was  sensitive  in  the 
highest  degree  to  any  appeal  which  beauty  made, 
whether  through  form  or  color  or  sound.  Architec- 
ture, sculpture,  painting,  music,  in  all  he  dehghted 
with  the  passion  of  an  artist.  His  love  of  nature  was 
like  that  of  a  poet.  The  grass,  the  flowers,  the  trees, 
the  streams,  he  held  sweet  commerce  with  them  all. 
Never  was  he  happier  than  in  his  long  rambles 
through  the  woods  and  fields.  And  how  he  loved 
our  woods  and  fields.  His  strong  local  attachment 
to  this  place,  which  was  always  finding  utterance 
in  his  conversation,  gave  him  an  enthusiasm  about 
the  scenery  of  this  neighborhood  on  which  his 
friends  occasionally  rallied  him.  But  for  miles 
around  he  could  guide  you  to  every  "coigne  of 
vantage,"  every  shady  nook,  every  meadow  carpeted 
with  the  finest  turf,  every  graceful  sw^eep  in  the 
stream.  With  what  ardor  he  would  in  your  walk 
with  him  arrest  your  steps  again  and  again,  to  dilate 
upon  the  charms  of  the  bit  of  landscape  before  you. 
With  what  zest  and  pride  he  would  exclaim,  as  from 
some  hilltop  he  caught  the  view  of  the  spires  and 
towers  of  the  city,  "it  is  really  finer  than  the  view 

[182] 


HENRY     SIMMONS     FRIEZE 


of  Oxford  hanging  on  my  wall."  His  love  for  the 
town  and  the  University,  and  his  delight  in  the 
pleasing  scenery  about  us,  made  him  often  speak  with 
gratitude  of  the  kindly  Providence  which  had  cast 
his  lot  in  what  he  regarded  as  an  ideal  home. 

Dr.  Frieze's  character  was  marked  by  an  unusual 
combination  of  great  modesty  —  I  might  perhaps 
say  diffidence,  or  even  shyness  —  with  real  courage. 
His  modesty  sometimes  impressed  those  who  did 
not  know  him  well  as  timidity.  He  had  a  very 
humble  estimate  of  his  abilities  and  attainments. 
This  diffidence  caused  him  much  anxiety  in  the 
earlier  years  of  his  work  as  a  teacher.  Even  in 
these  later  years  the  visit  of  strangers  to  his  class 
made  him  uncomfortable.  He  used  to  ask  me  not 
to  bring  visitors  to  his  lecture  room.  When  he  had 
some  important  suggestion  to  make  to  the  Faculty 
concerning  University  affairs,  he  often  persuaded 
some  one  else  to  present  it.  Only  when  he  was 
convinced  that  it  was  really  necessary,  often  not 
until  he  was  pressed  by  his  colleagues  for  his  opinion, 
would  he  speak  in  the  Faculty  meetings.  He  was 
ready  enough  to  express  his  views  on  any  subject 
in  private  conversation,  but  had  the  most  unusual 
reluctance  to  present  them  formally  and  in  public. 
But  in  the  Faculty  the  respect  for  his  opinion  was 
such  that  when  it  was  made  known,  whether  through 
the  lips  of  others  or  by  himself,  it  carried  great 
weight.  Yet,  notwithstanding  his  great  modesty, 
when  it  became  necessary  to  act  and  courage  was 

[183] 


SELECTED      ADDRESSES 


needed  for  the  act,  he  was  never  found  flinching 
from  duty.  He  dishked  controversy,  avoided  it 
when  possible,  and  often  averted  it  by  his  con- 
ciHatory  spirit.  But  in  great  crises  in  the  history  of 
this  Institution,  though  he  was  never  clamorous  in 
debate,  he  stood  at  his  post  firm  as  a  rock  for  what 
he  deemed  wise  and  right,  whether  the  issue  was 
with  insubordinate  students  or  with  external  foes 
of  the  University. 

He  was  eminently  social.  He  was  fond  of  the 
society  of  friends  with  tastes  congenial  to  his  own, 
and  was  one  of  the  most  charming  of  companions 
and  truest  of  friends.  He  loved  good  cheer.  His 
conversation  was  vivacious  and  sparkling.  His 
bearing  was  refined  and  attractive.  Utterly  free 
from  all  censoriousness,  never  indulging  in  acrid 
criticisms  of  others,  his  affectionate,  generous  nature 
won  all  hearts  and  imparted  to  them  the  same 
genial  spirit  which  ever  dwelt  in  him.  He  was  a 
most  welcome  guest  in  every  household.  He  carried 
sunshine  into  every  company.  His  tender,  sym- 
pathetic, loving  nature  gave  a  depth  and  richness 
to  his  more  intimate  friendship  which  only  those 
who  enjoyed  it  can  measure. 

The  religious  life  of  Dr.  Frieze  was  simple,  sincere, 
and  beautiful.  Warmly  attached  to  his  own  branch 
of  the  church,  he  had  the  most  catholic  and  fraternal 
feeling  for  every  other  branch.  One  of  the  most 
interesting  papers  he  ever  wTote  was  a  plea  for  the 
true  Christian  union  of  all  believers,  which  he  pre- 

[  184] 


HENRY     SIMMONS     FRIEZE 


pared  about  a  year  ago  for  the  Students'  Christian 
Association.  His  faith  was  singularly  childlike. 
To  him  religion  was  not  something  formal,  not  some- 
thing "to  be  worn  on  the  sleeve,"  or  obtrusively 
talked  about  in  the  market  place,  but  the  cheerful, 
trustful,  reverent  spirit  of  the  Christian  disciple, 
moulding  and  inspiring  the  whole  life,  in  its  pleasures 
as  in  its  sorrows,  in  its  daily  routine  of  toil  as  in  the 
hours  of  worship  in  the  church.  The  vexed  questions 
of  philosophical,  scientific,  and  theological  speculation 
did  not  disturb  the  serenity  of  his  soul.  He  under- 
stood their  import.  He  appreciated  and  lamented 
the  embarrassments  of  those  who  were  troubled  by 
them.  But  the  foundations  of  his  spiritual  life, 
laid  deep  in  a  loving  trust  of  his  Heavenly  Father 
and  in  the  joyful  following  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
were  never  shaken  by  the  storms  of  discussion, 
which  in  this  age  beat  upon  every  thoughtful  mind. 
A  soul  more  naturally  and  cheerfully  devout  than 
his,  one  that  in  all  moods  and  all  experiences  was 
more  completely  transfused  with  the  spirit  of  love 
to  God  and  love  to  man,  one  of  whom  we  may  more 
truly  say, 

"Whose  Faith  and  work  were  bells  of  full  accord" 

I  have  never  known. 

And  so  death  had  no  terrors  for  him.  He  often 
spoke  of  it  to  me  as  one  speaks  of  a  coming  journey. 
At  the  beginning  of  each  of  the  last  two  or  three 
winters  he  has  deemed  it  not  improbable  that  bron- 

[185] 


SELECTED      ADDRESSES 


chial  or  pulmonary  complications  might  prove  fatal 
to  him.  His  chief  anxiety  seemed  to  be  not  about 
himself,  but  about  his  family,  and  about  his  depart- 
ment of  work  in  the  University.  After  the  death 
of  his  dear  friend  and  associate,  Professor  Elisha 
Jones,  to  whom  he  had  hoped  to  leave  the  care  of 
the  instruction  in  Latin,  he  was  extremely  anxious 
that  a  successor  in  sympathy  with  his  views  of  the 
conduct  of  the  Latin  work  should  be  found  and 
appointed.  After  his  wish  had  been  gratified  and 
plans  for  the  conduct  of  his  department  had  been 
matured,  and  especially  when  the  University  year 
opened  so  prosperously,  he  was  extremely  happy. 
Again  and  again  in  his  long  walks  with  me  in  the 
early  autumn  he  spoke  of  the  gracious  Providence 
which  had  during  his  hfe  cast  for  him  the  lines  in 
so  pleasant  places;  of  the  charming  memories  of  his 
college  days,  of  his  and  my  old-time  friends  in 
Rhode  Island,  of  his  pride  in  many  of  his  former 
pupils,  and  especially  in  those  who  had  become  his 
colleagues  in  the  Faculty,  of  the  early  struggles  of 
the  University,  and  of  his  confident  hope  of  its  future 
prosperity.  Some  months  ago,  after  much  urging 
on  my  part,  I  obtained  from  him  a  partial  promise  to 
make  a  sketch  of  his  life,  a  promise  which  unhappily 
he  did  not  live  to  fulfil. 

He  began  the  labors  of  the  year  in  good  spirits 
and,  as  we  thought,  with  a  measure  of  strength  which 
might  at  least  carry  him  through  the  winter.  We 
now  know  that  the  insidious  and  fatal  disease  which 

[186] 


HENRY     SIMMONS     FRIEZE 


caused  his  death  was  even  then  sapping  the  founda- 
tions of  his  life.  He  soon  took  a  grave  view  of  his 
malady.  His  mind  became  clouded  at  times.  But 
it  was  pathetic  —  may  we  not  say  characteristic  — 
that  his  spirit  of  love  and  tenderness  seemed  to 
shape  his  visions  even  in  the  wanderings  of  his  mind. 
His  attending  physician  has  told  us  the  touching 
story  how,  in  those  half-conscious  hours  of  his  last 
illness,  he  recited  with  apparent  delight  the  names 
of  associates  —  dear  as  pupils  and  colleagues  and 
friends  —  and  expressed  his  gratitude  that  they 
had  so  cheered  his  life.  Pure  and  loving  heart! 
not  one  of  us  ever  gave  to  thee  a  tithe  of  what  thou 
gavest  to  us. 

And  now  after  all  that  I  have  said,  after  all  that 
any  one  could  say,  I  feel  and  you  feel  how  far  short 
my  words  have  come,  or  any  words  can  come,  of 
making  a  complete  portraiture  of  our  friend.  There 
was  something  in  his  winning  personality  that  eluded 
analysis.  There  was  in  him  a  certain  charm  of  soul 
which  cannot  be  fully  depicted  with  such  an  instru- 
ment as  human  speech.  But  memory  will  preserve 
for  us  the  sweet  recollections  of  the  winsomeness  of 
that  personality,  of  the  attractiveness  of  that  spirit. 
And  so  for  years  to  come  his  radiant  presence  will 
not  be  altogether  lost  to  us.  And  so  long  as  this 
University  shall  stand,  something,  we  may  hope,  of 
the  benign  influence  of  this  refined,  devoted,  noble 
scholar  and  teacher  will  remain  as  a  factor  in 
its  life. 

[187] 


VII 

THE  INFLUENCE  OF  THE  LAWYER 
OUTSIDE  OF  HIS  PROFESSION 


FEBRUARY  22,  1911 
AN  ADDRESS  TO  THE  LAW  STUDENTS 


VII 

THE   INFLUENCE   OF   THE   LAWYER 
OUTSIDE    OF   HIS   PROFESSION 


Pi  VERY  professional  man  has  from  his  special 
professional  training  his  peculiar  weakness  and  his 
peculiar  power  in  spheres  outside  of  his  profession. 
His  weakness  springs  from  the  one-sidedness  or 
limitations  of  his  knowledge  and  culture.  His 
power  flows  from  the  fulness  of  his  knowledge  and 
richness  of  culture  in  his  chosen  study.  For,  since 
no  field  of  thought  is  wholly  isolated  from  every 
other,  the  power  which  is  gained  in  his  special 
pursuit  may,  and  does,  make  itself  felt  beyond  the 
boundaries  of  his  profession.  Almost  every  man 
betrays  something  of  this  weakness  the  moment 
he  undertakes  to  pursue  investigations  which  are 
in  their  essential  nature  very  far  removed  from  those 
which  his  daily  calling  demands.  How  difficult  it 
is,  for  instance,  for  the  physicists  and  the  meta- 
physicians, or  for  many  of  the  naturalists  and  the 
theologians,  I  will  not  say  to  agree,  but  simply  to 
understand  each  other,  to  be  just  and  fair  to  each 
other.  They  are  accustomed  to  work  with  different 
tools,  to  employ  different  tests,  to  reach  results  by 
different  processes,  and  yet  it  is  not  easy  to  convince 
them  that  they  must  exchange  tools  and  tests  and 
processes  if  they  exchange  works.     If  they  do  attempt 

[191] 


SELECTED      ADDRESSES 


to  exchange  their  instruments,  they  often  need  the 
caution  which  is  given  to  children  who  handle  edged 
tools.  The  old  maxim,  ne  sutor  ultra  crepidam,  in 
its  homely  way  recognizes  the  truth  we  have  in  mind. 
Full  orbed,  perfectly  balanced,  universal  culture 
seems  to  be  out  of  the  reach  of  the  greatest.  Well 
for  us  if  the  striving  for  it  does  not  land  us  in  the 
distractions  of  poor  Faust.  Even  the  "many  sided" 
Goethe,  who  with  his  rare  genius  sought  for  it 
through  his  long  life,  failed  at  last  to  get  such  an 
insight  into  religious  truth  as  is  possessed  by  many 
a  humble  man.  There  are,  I  doubt  not,  questions 
in  law  which  a  surgeon  like  Nelaton  or  Mayo,  or  a 
naturahst  like  Darwin  or  Huxley,  would  solve  less 
promptly  and  justly  than  many  a  comparatively 
obscure  attorney,  even  if  the  statutes  and  precedents 
bearing  on  the  cases  were  made  knowTi  to  them, 
simply  because  the  method,  the  spirit  of  legal 
procedure   are  entirely   strange   to   them. 

Now  it  is  hardly  possible  that  the  training  and 
experience  of  a  lawyer  should  not  have  some  analo- 
gous perils.  I  do  not  feel  prepared  to  specify  them. 
Perhaps  they  are  different  for  different  men.  Mr. 
Burke  has  told  us  that  the  practice  of  the  law  by 
itself  is  not  apt,  except  in  persons  very  happily 
born,  to  open  and  liberalize  the  mind  exactly  in  the 
same  proportion  as  it  invigorates  the  understanding; 
and  that  eminent  jurist,  Judge  Story,  intimates 
that  one  who  has  given  his  exclusive  attention  to 
the  study  of  his  profession  may  be  lacking  in  an 

[192] 


THE     INFLUENCE     OF     THE     LAWYER 

enlarged  view  of  duty  which  wider  range  of  studies 
would  furnish,  and  that  from  this  lack  the  profes- 
sion has  sometimes  been  subjected  to  unpleasant 
reproaches.  I  have  heard  eminent  lawyers  complain 
of  a  tendency  in  some  of  their  brethren  to  underrate 
the  moral  worth  and  honesty  of  men.  Continually 
dealing  with  litigants  who  are  not  in  the  happiest 
frame  of  mind  nor  in  the  most  favorable  circum- 
stances for  the  display  of  the  loveher  virtues,  they 
have  told  me  lawyers  are  in  danger  of  acquiring  the 
habit  of  forming  judgments  of  men  which,  if  gen- 
erally applied,  are  misleading  and  false.  I  think,  too, 
I  have  seen  lawyers  who,  by  dint  of  years  of  hair- 
sphtting,  had  acquired  such  a  habit  of  quibbling 
on  technicalities  that  their  practical  judgments  in 
ordinary  affairs  commanded  little  respect  and  their 
tempers  little  approbation.  At  any  rate  we  have 
all  seen  lawyers,  as  well  as  men  of  other  professions, 
so  imprisoned  by  the  laws  of  their  own  vocation  that 
they  could  see  no  beauty  or  truth  save  from  the 
professional  point  of  view.  We  have  all  heard  of 
the  mathematician  who  did  not  think  much  of 
"Paradise  Lost"  because  it  proved  nothing.  So 
eminent  a  man  as  Lord  Coke,  it  is  said,  valued 
Chaucer  above  other  poets,  merely  because  the 
Yemannes  Tale  is  a  sort  of  poetical  leading  case, 
illustrating  statute  5,  Henry  IV,  chap.  4,  against 
alchemy.  Mr.  Emerson  wisely  says  "truth  is  an 
element  of  life,  yet  if  a  man  fasten  his  attention  on 
a  single  aspect  of  truth  and  apply  himself  to  that 

[193] 


SELECTED      ADDRESSES 


alone  for  a  long  time,  the  truth  becomes  distorted 
and  is  itself  but  falsehood." 

It  is  therefore  well  for  the  lawyer,  like  the  rest  of 
us,  to  be  on  his  guard  against  this  one-sidedness  or 
hmitation  of  training.  If  he  would  see  clearly  that 
large  part  of  the  world  which  lies  beyond  his  pro- 
fession, or  if  he  would  touch  men  elsewhere  than  on 
their  legal  side,  he  must  strive  after  that  variety  of 
training  which  tends  to  completeness  or  integrity  of 
the  mental  and  moral  nature.  Do  you  ask  how  can 
he  do  this.?^  I  know  of  no  way  save  by  making  such 
excursions  as  he  can  into  all  fields  of  thought.  It  is 
possible  by  economy  of  time  for  almost  anyone  to 
learn  the  leading  facts  of  some  of  the  principal 
sciences  and  their  "organons,"  their  methods  of 
reaching  truth.  One  can  at  least  learn  enough  to 
be  tolerant  of  other  tests  of  truth  than  those  applied 
in  one's  own  profession  by  seeking  free  conversation 
with  competent  men  of  other  professions.  Indeed, 
the  highest  view  of  your  professional  work  would 
almost  compel  you  to  this  search  into  all  sciences, 
if  we  may  follow  that  great  master,  Brougham, 
in  believing  that  "jurisprudence  pushes  its  roots  into 
all  the  grounds  of  human  science  and  spreads  its 
branches  over  every  object  that  concerns  mankind." 
Or,  if  we  follow  one  of  our  greatest  American  lawyers, 
we  may  hold  that  "in  its  widest  extent,  it  may  be 
said  to  compass  almost  every  human  action,  and  in 
its  minute  details  to  measure  every  human  duty." 
Some  may  be  stimulated  to  seek  a  corrective  culture 

[194] 


THE     INFLUENCE      OF     THE     LAWYER 

in  the  study  of  natural  science,  as  they  remember 
how  Lord  Bacon's  famous  Ordinances  continue  to 
be  the  pole  star  which  directs  the  practice  of  our 
Chancery  Courts,  as  one  of  our  renowned  jurists 
has  said,  while,  as  every  one  knows,  his  Novum 
Organum  is  the  pole  star  which  has  directed  all 
scientific  investigation  from  his   day  to  ours. 

Our  English  literature,  with  its  many  voiced  wis- 
dom, breathing  the  spirit  of  every  variety  of  mind, 
is  within  the  easy  reach  of  all.  And,  therefore, 
would  I  recommend  the  study  of  literature,  and 
especially  of  oiu*  own,  above  all  other  studies  as  the 
best  help  in  securing  balance  and  richness  and  ful- 
ness of  development.  How  has  one  of  our  great 
lawyers,  who  illustrated  as  few  have  the  possibil- 
ity of  combining  large  literary  attainments  with 
the  most  brilliant  professional  success,  depicted  the 
power  of  literature  even  to  save  the  reason  of  the 
over-tasked  advocate.  In  his  Address  at  the  dedica- 
tion of  the  Peabody  Institute,  Rufus  Choate  pictures 
the  tired  lawyer  coming  home,  his  temples  throbbing, 
his  nerves  shattered,  from  a  trial  of  a  week,  miserable, 
disappointed,  wellnigh  inconsolable. 

"With  a  superhuman  effort  he  opens  his  book 
and  in  the  twinkling  of  an  eye  he  is  looking  into 
the  full  'orb  of  Homeric  or  Miltonic  song,'  or  he 
stands  in  the  crowd,  breathless,  yet  swayed  as 
forests  or  the  sea  by  winds,  hearing  and  to  judge  the 
Pleadings  for  the  Crown;  or  the  philosophy  which 
soothed  Cicero  and  Boethius  in  their  afflictions,  in 

[195] 


SELECTED      ADDRESSES 


exile,  prison,  and  the  contemplation  of  death,  breathes 
over  his  petty  cares  like  the  sweet  south;  or  Pope 
or  Horace  laughs  him  into  good  humor;  or  he  walks 
with  iEneas  and  the  Sibyl  in  the  mild  light  of  the 
world  of  the  laurelled  dead;  and  the  court  house  is  as 
completely  forgotten  as  the  dreams  of  a  pre-Adamite 
life.  Well  may  he  prize  that  endeared  charm,  so 
effectual  and  safe,  without  which  the  brain  had 
long  ago  been  chilled  by  paralysis  or  set  on  fire  by 
insanity." 

I  know  it  has  sometimes  been  thought  that  fame 
as  a  literary  scholar  detracts  from  a  lawyer's  reputa- 
tion, if  not  from  his  worth.  But  when  we  recall 
the  elegant  scholarship  of  our  Wirts  and  Pinkneys 
and  Lcgares,  when  we  remember  that  our  greatest 
juridical  light,  John  Marshall,  found  his  solace  and 
refreshment  in  the  meritorious  novels  and  poems  of 
our  literature,  even  wooed  the  muses  himself;  that 
Lord  Stowell,  the  great  master  of  Admiralty  Law, 
and  Blackstone,  the  Commentator,  were  possessed 
of  the  most  generous  literary  culture;  that  Lord 
Mansfield,  who  may,  I  suppose,  almost  be  called  the 
originator  of  our  modern  Commercial  Law,  was  not 
only  a  brilliant  scholar,  but  moreover  was  so  endowed 
with  poetical   gifts   that  Pope  in  his  graceful  line, 

"How  sweet  an  Ovid  in  a  Murray  lost," 

regrets  that  the  muses  had  been  obliged  to  give  him 
up  to  the  law;  that  the  great  French  Chancellor 
D'Aguesseau  was  only  less  accomplished  in  general 

[196] 


THE     INFLUENCE     OF     THE     LAWYER 


letters  than  in  the  Civil  and  the  Canon  Law,  was  so 
familiar  with  the  classics  that  at  the  age  of  eighty 
he  was  wont  to  correct  from  memory  the  misquota- 
tions of  learned  scholars  from  the  Greek  and  Latin 
poets;  that  the  great  work  of  Grotius,  "De  Jure  Belli 
ac  Pacis,"  which  has  had  a  greater  influence  upon 
the  fortunes  of  the  race  than  any  book  that  has 
been  written  in  the  last  three  centuries,  is  crowded 
with  learning  which  its  gifted  author  had  drawn 
from  all  history  and  literature,  we  may  well  believe 
that  it  is  possible  for  a  great  lawyer  to  be  a  master 
of  letters  and  to  draw  from  them  comfort  and  inspi- 
ration and  power. 

But  the  lawyer  has  also  a  power  outside  of  his 
profession  because  of  his  training  as  a  lawyer. 
The  effects  of  this  power  are  most  clearly  seen  in 
public  affairs.  I  do  not  now  refer  to  the  labors  of 
lawyers  who  have  formally  entered  upon  the  career 
of  politicians  or  statesmen,  but  only  to  the  influence 
which  as  private  citizens  they  are  able  to  exert  in 
shaping  public  opinion  and  public  action.  That 
power  acts  sometimes  aggressively,  sometimes  in 
a  conservative  manner.  More  than  once  it  has 
underlain  great  popular  movements,  —  revolutions 
even.  Every  student  of  history  knows  that  when 
the  Gentlemen  of  the  Robe  in  France  became  a 
constituent  part  of  the  burgher  class  the  weight  of 
their  influence,  the  power  of  their  ideas,  worked  a 
change  in  the  condition  of  that  class  which  might 
be  called  a  revolution.     It  became  a  power  in  the 

[197] 


SELECTED      ADDRESSES 


realm,  and  that  not  merely  because  the  king  in  his 
struggles  with  the  Pope  was  obliged  to  call  lawyers 
into  his  council,  but  because  of  the  dissemination 
by  the  lawyers  throughout  the  burgher  class  of 
ideas  of  justice  and  right  which  their  studies  taught 
them.  The  stubborn  resistance  of  that  famous  court, 
the  Parliament  of  Paris,  to  the  encroachments  of  the 
Pope  on  Galilean  liberties,  and  often  to  the  tyranny 
of  kings  from  the  time  of  Louis  XI  down  through 
the  Orleans  regency  to  the  Revolution  of  '89,  which 
it  so  hastened  by  demanding  the  meeting  of  the  States 
General,  was  of  incalculable  influence  in  saving  France 
from  utter  submission  to  civil  and  ecclesiastical 
tyranny.  For  it  not  only  placed  legal  obstacles  in 
the  path  of  popes  and  kings,  but  also  fired  the  hearts 
of  the  people  to  a  new  zeal  for  their  rights.  A 
renowned  English  historian  has  wisely  said  that, 
fertile  as  France  is  in  great  men,  she  might  better 
spare  from  her  annals  any  class  of  them  than  her 
lawyers. 

How  English  lawyers  from  old  Bracton  down  to 
Brougham  have  as  lawyers  and  judges  helped  fight 
the  battle  of  English  liberty  is  familiar  to  all.  My 
Lord  Coke's  imperishable  answer  to  James  I  in 
the  famous  case  of  the  Commendams  that  "when 
occasion  came  he  should  do  what  would  become  a 
judge,"  has  been  in  practice  said  on  the  bench  a 
thousand  times  over  in  the  great  struggle  between 
privilege  and  prerogative,  and  every  such  reply  to 
the    demands   of    arrogant    authority    was    later    a 

[198] 


THE     INFLUENCE     OF     THE     LAWYER 

trumpet  appeal  to  the  people,  stirring  their  hearts 
to  withstand  all  encroachments  of  power.  It  was 
with  an  unerring  instinct  that  Laud  and  Strafford 
strove  to  put  down  the  common  lawyers  as  one  of 
the  first  steps  in  their  tyrannical  schemes.  "I 
disdain,"  writes  Strafford,  "to  see  the  gownsmen  in 
this  sort  hang  their  noses  over  the  flowers  of  the 
crown."  Yes,  but  there  they  did  hang  their  noses 
till  the  last  of  those  flowers,  which  Strafford  so 
prized,  withered  and  perished  on  the  scaffold  at 
Whitehall. 

Who  can  measure  the  force  of  the  impulse  which 
James  Otis,  the  Adamses,  Patrick  Henry,  Charles 
Pinkney,  and  the  other  lawyers  of  their  time  lent 
to  our  revolutionary  movement,  simply  because  as 
lawyers  they  were  able  to  draw  so  sharply  the  line 
beyond  which  every  step  of  the  mother  country 
was  defiant  of  the  very  spirit  of  English  law,  as  well 
as  of  liberty.  The  maxims  of  that  law,  whose  pride 
it  was  to  be  the  jealous  guardian  and  protector  of 
the  liberty  of  the  subject,  had  become  inwrought  into 
their  very  being,  and  wherever  they  were  —  in  the 
church,  in  court,  in  the  street,  in  town  meeting  — 
they  were,  day  and  night,  bracing  up  their  neighbors 
and  friends  to  resist  the  unlawful  aggressions  of  the 
king.  The  people  hung  upon  the  lips  of  these  ex- 
pounders of  the  laws  of  the  realm  and  of  the  eternal 
principles  of  right  and,  inspired  to  heroic  endeavor, 
marched  forth  to  the  conflict  and  to  victory.  We 
specially  commemorate  to-day  the  birthday  of  Wash- 

[199] 


SELECTED      ADDRESSES 


ington,  but  we  may  well  remember  that  it  was  the 
great  lawyers  of  his  day  who  framed  the  issue  for 
which  the  soldier  fought  and,  later,  shaped  the 
immortal  constitution  under  which  Washington 
administered  our  government  with  such  wisdom, 
and  under  which  our  national  greatness  has  been 
achieved. 

But  while  lawyers,  as  lawyers,  have  thus  enabled 
men  to  see  what  just  laws  entitle  them  to  claim,  and 
have  so  led  the  very  van  of  revolutions,  they  do  also, 
by  virtue  of  their  training  and  work,  exert  a  salutary 
conservative  power  on  society.  If  they  encourage 
men  to  claim  what  just  laws  entitle  them  to,  they 
do  also  discourage  enterprises,  whether  private  or 
public,  which  are  hostile  to  the  spirit  of  law  and 
justice.  All  their  habits  of  mind  must  tend  in  that 
direction.  They  are  accustomed  to  bow  to  the  deci- 
sions of  courts.  A  wise  writer  has  said  "the  nervous 
language  of  the  Common  Law,  the  impressive  forms 
of  our  courts,  and  the  precision  and  substantial 
truth  of  the  legal  distinctions  are  the  contribution 
of  all  the  sharp-sighted,  strong-minded  men  who  have 
lived  in  the  countries  where  these  laws  govern." 
It  is  not  strange  that  the  profession  should  reverence 
the  wisdom  and  sacredness  of  law.  They  attach 
weight  to  venerable  precedents.  They  are  compelled 
to  \aew  both  sides  of  questions.  They  are  constantly 
warned  against  hasty  conclusions.  They  have  a 
lofty  ideal  of  the  functions  of  the  state.  A  certain 
steadiness  and  sobriety  of  mind,  a  sort  of  judicial 

[200] 


THE     INFLUENCE     OF     THE     LAWYER 

habit  of  deliberation,  a  desire  to  see  good  reasons 
for  change  in  any  of  our  usages  or  institutions, 
before  advocating  such  a  change,  all  these  qualities 
seem  to  me  to  justify  the  splendid  eulogium  which 
one  of  our  great  lawyers  has  pronounced  upon  the 
Bar  for  its  conservative  force. 

I  believe  that  what  may  be  termed  these  extra- 
professional  services  of  the  lawyers  in  demanding 
for  liberty  all  that  just  law  can  give  her  and  in 
restraining  public  opinion  from  wild  excursions  into 
the  domain  of  lawlessness  are  not  appreciated  as  they 
deserve.  Perhaps  it  is  also  true  that  the  profession 
do  not  always  realize  their  accountability  for  the 
wise  use  of  this  power  which  comes  to  them  by  virtue 
of  their  calling.  At  any  rate  I  wish  to  commend  with 
emphasis  the  cultivation  of  this  conservative  spirit, 
when  so  many  unwise  governmental  fads,  including  a 
popular  recall  of  judges,  are  afloat  in  the  air. 

But  not  only  do  lawyers  while  strictly  adhering  to 
their  special  work  exert  a  peculiar  influence  upon 
society,  but  many  of  them  wield  a  much  greater 
power  over  the  public  by  their  labors  in  a  profession, 
if  I  may  so  call  it,  which  is  closely  allied  to  their 
own.  Just  as  the  clergy  find  themselves  almost 
necessarily  concerned  with  the  direction  of  education, 
and  many  of  them  naturally  come  to  fill  chairs  of 
instruction  in  our  schools  and  colleges,  so  the  study 
and  work  of  a  lawyer  open  the  door  to  the  career 
of  a  legislator  and  statesman.  The  profession  is 
entered  upon  by  not  a  few  simply  because  it  seems 

[201  1 


SELECTED      ADDRESSES 


to  furnish  the  best  stepping  stone  to  pubHc  life. 
But  many  a  worthy  lawyer  who  has  no  undue  itching 
for  political  preferment  finds  himself  at  times  almost 
constrained  to  exchange  his  professional  work  for 
less  remunerative  toil  in  the  chambers  of  legislation. 
Doubtless  many  are  pretty  easily  constrained,  and 
some  give  notice  in  advance  that  they  are  wilHng  to 
be  persuaded.  But  in  spite  of  the  frequent  com- 
plaints of  the  undue  representation  of  the  legal  pro- 
fession in  our  legislative  bodies,  the  history  of  our 
legislation  shows  that  there  is  no  superfluity  of 
technical  skill  in  framing  our  statutes.  That  is 
an  unusually  wise  and  careful  Legislature  in  any 
State  which  does  not  by  its  tinkering  and  blundering 
at  any  session  furnish  pretty  steady  work  for  the 
judges  until  the  next  session  in  correcting  its  mistakes. 
It  has  been  urged  in  some  parts  of  the  country  as 
a  strong  argument  for  preferring  biennial  to  annual 
sessions  that  they  furnish  only  half  as  many  mistakes 
to  correct. 

It  is  foreign  to  my  present  purpose  to  attempt  to 
say  just  when  a  lawyer  may  wisely  suspend  his 
professional  work  to  enter  upon  pubHc  office.  Look- 
ing at  facts  as  they  are,  I  find  that  a  large  number 
of  lawyers  have  chosen,  and  do  still  choose,  and  as  I 
believe  to  the  great  advantage  of  the  pubhc,  to  essay 
the  work  of  legislators  and  statesmen.  I  cannot  err 
in  assuming  that  the  usual  proportion  of  your  number 
will  pursue  the  same  course.  And  therefore  I  say 
it  is  your  duty  to  have  regard  to  this  fact  in  shaping 

[202] 


THE     INFLUENCE     OF     THE     LAWYER 

your  studies.  I  think  that  in  your  plans  of  work 
you  should  contemplate  the  largest  possible  attain- 
ments in  those  departments  of  learning  which  every 
statesman  should  strive  to  master.  And  those 
departments  lie  so  closely  upon  the  border  land  of 
the  law  —  some  of  them  being  indeed  largely  within 
its  territory  —  that  a  considerable  acquaintance 
with  them  is  essential  to  a  broad  and  generous  legal 
culture.  Their  inviting  fields  are  so  constantly 
within  the  range  of  your  vision,  as  you  pursue  your 
strictly  professional  studies,  that  I  hardly  know  how 
you  can  resist  the  temptation  to  make  some  excur- 
sions into  them  and  to  bring  back  some  grapes  from 
Eschol  to  refresh  you  in  the  routine  of  your  daily 
work.  Still  we  do  see  many  painful  proofs  that  dry, 
hard,  narrow  minds  may  pursue  your  vocation  as  a 
trade  and  be  content  with  a  pettifogger's  success,  or 
if  they  enter  upon  political  life  may  aspire  to  no 
higher  achievement  than  the  skilful  manipulation  of 
caucuses  and  the  appropriation  of  partisan  spoils. 
No  broad  views  of  juridical  science  or  of  any  allied 
branch  are  desired  or  needed  by  them. 

Believing,  however,  that  you  have  loftier  aspira- 
tions and  juster  conceptions  of  your  opportunities, 
may  I  venture  to  suggest  to  those  who  would  be 
prepared  for  public  service  certain  studies  which  may 
claim  some  of  your  attention  in  those  early  years  of 
your  practice  when  crowding  clients  and  "flowing 
fees"  may  not  too  much  disturb  the  tranquillity  of 
your  oflSce? 

[203] 


SELECTED   ADDRESSES 


I  would  mention,  first,  History.  I  know  that  there 
have  been  men  high  in  office  who  knew  Httle  history 
and  less  geography.  We  have  all  read  how  the 
Duke  of  Newcastle  hurried  to  his  sovereign,  George 
the  Third,  in  the  days  of  colonial  troubles,  with  the 
announcement  as  of  something  new,  —  that  Cape 
Breton  was  an  island,  —  and  the  news  was  a  surprise 
both  to  the  king  and  half  the  cabinet.  We  are  told 
that  Castlereagh  gave  up  the  Island  of  Java  to  the 
Dutch  in  the  treaty  of  Vienna  because  he  could  not 
find  it  on  the  map.  But  no  one  could  have  read 
Blackstone's  and  Kent's  Commentaries  without 
seeing  how  large  a  harvest  the  study  of  the  history  of 
England  and  of  our  own  country  must  yield  to  the 
student  of  law  and  how  indispensable  it  is  to  all  who 
undertake  conspicuous  work  in  legislation.  I  need 
not  delay  on  this  obvious  truth,  I  would  merely  make 
two  simple  suggestions:  first,  that,  in  my  opinion, 
we  have  far  more  of  practical  value  to  us  to  learn 
in  the  Plantagenet  period  of  English  history  and  in 
the  continental  history  from  the  thirteenth  to  the 
sixteenth  century  than  is  generally  supposed,  and 
secondly,  that  we  should  look  beneath  the  mere 
facts  of  history  to  the  underlying  principles.  What 
you  call  somewhat  contemptuously,  I  believe,  a 
case  lawyer,  finds  the  exact  counterpart  in  what 
may  be  named  the  fact  historian.  What  you  want 
of  history  is  to  find  the  principles  which  have  deter- 
mined the  growth  of  States,  the  protection  of  liberty, 
the  defence  of  right.     If  you  do  not  get  this  out  of 

[204] 


THE     INFLUENCE     OF     THE     LAWYER 

your  history,  your  knowledge  of  the  succession  of 
kings  and  empires  is  of  no  more  worth  than  Homer's 
catalogue  of  the  Grecian  ships,  or  the  advertisement 
of  an  auction  sale  upon  the  fence  post  at  the  next 
corner. 

Then  the  science  of  Political  Economy  should 
receive  much  more  thorough  and  extended  study 
than  is  given  to  it  by  most  of  our  legislators.  This 
is  true,  even  if  we  regard  it,  as  most  English  and 
American  writers  do,  merely  as  the  science  of  wealth. 
If  there  are  any  laws  which  govern  the  production, 
exchange,  and  distribution  of  wealth,  if  there  are  any 
sound  principles  of  right  or  even  expediency  which 
should  regulate  our  currency,  our  banking,  the  rela- 
tions of  capital  and  labor,  our  systems  of  taxation, 
our  domestic  and  our  foreign  trade,  it  is  of  the 
utmost  consequence  to  us  and  to  yourselves  that 
you,  who  are  to  do  so  much  to  shape  our  public  policy, 
should  be  familiar  with  those  laws  and  those  princi- 
ples. If  the  large  experience  of  other  nations  has 
any  lessons  of  wisdom  for  legislators,  you  should 
know  those  lessons.  But  I  believe  that  the  time 
has  come  when  our  statesmen  should  expand  their 
conception  of  what  is  commonly  termed  political 
economy  till  it  comprises  something  more  than  the 
laws  of  wealth,  till  it  becomes  in  a  high  and  just  sense 
of  the  term  social  science.  Many  of  the  continental 
writers  have  taken  broader  and  more  correct  views 
of  the  real  scope  of  the  science  than  the  English. 
They  study  in  it  not  only  all  those  forces  which 

[205  ] 


SELECTED      ADDRESSES 


directly  result  in  the  acquisition  of  wealth,  but  also 
charities,  education,  religious,  penal  and  reformatory 
institutions,  public  utilities,  corporations,  trusts, 
social  theories,  all  the  forces  which  essentially  shape 
and  color  the  life  of  the  state  and  of  society.  Not 
that  we  should  imitate  those  monarchical  govern- 
ments which  undertake  to  control  the  whole  devel- 
opment of  individual  and  national  life  in  matters 
temporal  and  spiritual  by  statutory  and  police  inter- 
vention. But  a  statesman  who  is  called  to  legislate 
can  wisely  determine  the  proper  limits  of  legislation 
only  by  a  profound  knowledge  of  the  true  function 
and  possible  power  of  all  the  forces  which  can  effect 
a  national  life.  Half  the  secret  of  legislative  wisdom 
consists  of  finding  out  what  it  is  not  necessary  to  do. 
And  he  is  the  best  guarded  against  inflicting  on  us 
the  evil  of  over-much  legislation  and  the  evil  of 
unwise  or  useless  legislation  who  can  see  exactly 
what  can  be  done  by  other  forces  than  those  of 
statutes  and  officers  of  the  law.  It  is  the  science 
of  society  in  this  large  sense  which  I  desire  to 
commend. 

Another  study  to  which  every  lawyer  who  is 
looking  to  public  life  should  give  some  attention 
is  that  of  International  Law.  Indeed,  it  might  well 
be  commended  to  every  one  for  its  fascination  and 
for  its  tendency  to  broaden  and  enrich  the  mind. 
Ninety  years  ago  Judge  Story,  in  addressing  the 
Suffolk  Bar,  said  "there  is  nothing  that  can  give  so 
high  a  finish  or  so  brilliant  an  ornament  or  so  exten- 

[206  1 


THE      INFLUENCE      OF      THE      LAWYER 

sive  an  instruction  as  this  pursuit  to  a  professional 
education."  It  involves  in  its  discussion  so  many 
of  the  fundamental  principles  of  historical,  of  ethical, 
and  of  legal  science,  it  is  concerned  with  issues  of 
such  transcendent  consequence,  it  so  cheers  the 
heart  which  rejoices  to  read  the  bright  proofs  of 
the  moral  progress  of  the  race  in  the  increasing 
humaneness  of  its  code,  it  so  compels  even  desolating 
wars  to  write  with  the  pens  of  fire  new  articles  of 
justice  and  mercy  and  Christian  forbearance  on  the 
great  statute  book  of  nations,  and  although  the 
science  can  be  fairly  called  only  two  centuries  and 
a  half  old,  it  has  been  expounded  and  illustrated  by 
the  genius  of  so  many  of  the  ablest  publicists  and 
statesmen  of  Europe  and  America  that  rather  than 
urge  you  to  pursue  it,  I  ought  perhaps  to  caution 
you,  if  you  once  begin  it,  against  letting  its  charms 
divert  you  too  much  from  your  regular  work.  I 
am  not  now  addressing  you  as  lawyers,  who  may  be 
called  to  practise  in  admiralty  courts,  but  as  men 
who  in  public  stations,  perhaps  charged  as  mem- 
bers of  Congress  with  the  responsibility  of  decid- 
ing whether  we  have  just  cause  of  war  with  some 
great  nation,  possibly  as  senators  with  the  power 
of  aiding  in  making  treaties,  at  any  rate  as  mem- 
bers of  a  profession  whose  influence  on  questions  of 
international  law  must  have  vast  weight  in  moulding 
the  public  sentiment  in  critical  hours,  and  I  say  that 
it  seems  in  the  highest  degree  desirable  both  for  your 
own  reputation  and  for  the  public  welfare  that  you 

[  207  ] 


SELECTED      ADDRESSES 


should  master  at  least  the  leading  principles  of  this 
beautiful  branch  of  juridical  science. 

There  remains  yet  one  other  subject  to  which  I 
would  turn  the  eyes  of  those  who  would  train  them- 
selves for  large  service  in  public  life;  that  is  Political 
Philosophy.  I  think  I  do  not  attach  undue  impor- 
tance to  theories  of  government.  I  do  not  forget  the 
famous  remark  of  a  great  statesman  that  "a  young 
man  who  is  not  an  enthusiast  in  matters  of  govern- 
ment must  possess  low  and  grovelling  principles  of 
action  and  that  an  old  man  who  is  an  enthusiast 
must  have  lived  to  little  purpose."  But,  after  all,  it 
is  of  real  service  to  us  to-day  to  know  what  Aristotle 
and  Cicero  and  Locke  and  Burke  and  Hamilton  have 
thought  upon  great  political  problems.  With  all 
the  fluctuations  of  human  life,  with  all  the  changes 
which  centuries  bring  in  the  condition  of  men,  the 
constant,  the  unchanging  is  a  larger  element  than 
the  variable.  And  many  of  the  words  of  those  great 
masters  might  well  be  inscribed  on  our  legislative 
halls  to-day  for  our  guidance.  For  many  of  the 
problems  which  were  discussed  on  the  bema  and  on 
the  rostrum  were  essentially  those  which  are  under 
discussion  to-day  in  Westminster  or  in  Washington. 
Not  to  speak  of  Plato's  ideal  republic,  though  Mr. 
Jowett  in  his  charming  introduction  to  his  beautiful 
translation  has  taught  us  not  to  scorn  the  practical 
lessons  which  it  may  teach  us  to-day,  no  man  can 
afford  to  be  ignorant  of  Aristotle's  treatise  on  Politics, 
the  most   profound  work  which  the  ancient  world 

[208] 


THE     INFLUENCE     OF     THE     LAWYER 

gave  US  on  that  subject,  if  indeed  it  is  not  the  most 
profound  the  world  has  ever  seen,  and  yet  it  may  be 
read  between  sun  and  sun.  It  is  not  much  longer 
than  the  speech  of  a  Congressman, — by  no  means  so 
extensive  as  Sir  John  Coleridge's  plea  in  the  Tich- 
borne  case,  which  is  said  to  have  been  twenty-three 
days  long  and  six  hours  wide.  Object  as  you  must 
to  his  views  of  slavery,  yet  delight  to  refresh  your 
spirit  by  communing  with  the  philosopher  who  first 
perceived  those  two  great  truths :  first,  that  the  social 
state  is  the  natural  state,  in  other  words,  that  man 
is  a  political  animal,  and  second,  that  political  liberty 
is  the  true  foundation  of  the  prosperity  of  the  state. 
Starting  from  him,  we  may  come  down  through 
the  centuries  and  mark  the  gradual  development  of 
those  political  ideas  which  we  accept  as  axioms,  but 
which  were  evolved  by  severest  thought  and  main- 
tained in  blood.  See  how  the  Stoical  philosophers 
rose  to  the  conception  of  the  human  race  as  one  great 
city  or  society  and  prepared  the  way  for  the  Roman 
lawyers  to  assert  the  equality  of  all  men  before  the 
great  law  of  nature  in  that  famous  phrase,  omnes 
homines  natura  acquales  sunt,  which  Jefferson  wrested 
from  the  old  Roman  code  and  clothed  with  a  new 
and  more  glorious  meaning  and  bound  on  the  brow 
of  new-born  American  Hberty  to  shine  there  forever 
as  a  star  and  a  light  to  the  oppressed  of  all  nations. 
See  then  Christianity  appearing  and  declaring  the 
brotherhood  of  men  and  aiming  to  establish  the  City 
of  God  among  men.     See  spring  up  in  Christian 

[209] 


SELECTED      ADDRESSES 


society  the  two  great  parties  who  so  long  contended 
for  the  mastery,  the  one  striving  to  subject  the  state 
to  the  church  in  accordance  with  that  theocratic 
doctrine  of  pohtical  philosophy  which  that  gifted 
and  acute  schoolman,  Thomas  Aquinas,  has  ex- 
pounded with  such  marvellous  ability;  the  other,  the 
laic  party,  contending  for  the  independence  of  the 
state  from  ecclesiastical  control  through  the  mouth 
of  that  great  polemic  of  the  thirteenth  century, 
William  of  Ockham,  who  wields  the  dialectic  weapons 
of  the  mediaeval  logic  with  resistless  power  and  is 
crowned  with  victory.  Listen  to  the  words  of  the 
great  Italian,  Machiavelli,  who  if  he  leaves  us  in 
doubt  concerning  his  true  character,  leaves  us  in  no 
doubt  concerning  his  deep  insight  into  the  gravest 
problems  of  politics.  It  may  not  be  without  profit 
even  to  us,  citizens  of  a  republic,  to  hear  what 
Hobbes  of  England  and  Bossuet  in  France  can  say 
in  defence  of  absolutism,  the  one  basing  it  on  the 
wild  fiction  of  the  irrevocable  cession  of  rights  by 
the  people  to  the  sovereign,  and  giving  that  sovereign 
unlimited  power;  the  other  basing  it  on  the  will  of 
God  and  holding  the  sovereign  responsible  to  divine 
law  for  his  use  of  authority.  It  is  well  for  us  to 
thrill  our  hearts  and  stir  our  blood  by  hearing 
Sidney  and  Milton  and  Locke  in  their  great  pleas 
for  human  freedom.  With  these  fresh  in  our  memory 
do  we  not  still  celebrate  the  seventeenth  century  as 
the  era  when  liberty  first  spoke  with  articulate  voice 
those  inspiring  words  which  have  ever  since  been 

[210] 


THE     INFLUENCE     OF     THE     LAWYER 

sounding  in  the  ears  of  tyrants  and  summoning  them 
to  judgment?  Or,  crossing  the  channel,  have  we, 
with  our  mixed  and  balanced  government,  nothing 
to  learn  from  that  calm  and  profound  French  inves- 
tigator, Montesquieu,  who,  though  believing  in  the 
usefulness  of  a  hereditary  nobility,  was  animated 
by  a  love  for  national  liberty,  and  has  proved  by 
his  careful  study  of  governmental  systems  that  the 
separation  and  distribution  of  the  powers  of  govern- 
ment are  essential  conditions  of  liberty?  Shall  we 
not  also  hear  Rousseau  with  his  matchless  eloquence 
expounding  his  doctrine  of  the  social  compact? 
Fiction  though  it  is,  it  is  so  splendid  a  fiction  that 
it  is  almost  better  than  truth.  For,  like  so  many 
legal  fictions,  it  has  proved  of  immense  historical 
significance  and  has  helped  almost  more  than  any- 
thing else  to  carry  the  race  up  to  the  general  accept- 
ance of  that  great  doctrine  of  human  equality  which 
lies  at  the  base  of  our  system  of  government,  which 
overturned  the  monarchy  in  France,  and  which  is 
rapidly  leavening  the  whole  civilized  world. 

The  statesman  of  to-day  cannot  afford  to  begin 
his  study  of  political  principles  with  the  platform  of 
his  party  or  even  with  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States.  As  well  might  the  lawyer  content 
himself  with  reading  the  latest  digest  of  the  statutes 
of  his  State.  No,  he  needs  to  go  back  to  the  foun- 
tains, whence  these  streams  of  political  ideas  and 
principles  flowed,  to  study  them  in  all  their  course 
and  see  what  thriving  villages  and  populous  cities 

[211] 


SELECTED      ADDRESSES 


and  happy  homes  have  sprung  up  on  the  banks 
before  he  can  comprehend  their  true  spirit  and 
power.  Our  greatest  statesmen  have  not  spurned 
such  study.  See  on  almost  every  page  of  the 
FederaHst,  perhaps  the  most  valuable  contribution 
this  nation  has  made  to  political  hterature,  the 
proofs  of  the  familiarity  of  the  writers  with  the  best 
political  thinking  of  ancient  and  modern  days. 
Mr.  Webster,  who  I  suppose  most  of  us  will  now  agree 
combined  more  successfully  than  almost  any  other 
American  the  intellectual  gifts  and  attainments  of 
a  great  lawyer  and  a  great  statesman,  was  not  better 
read  in  the  text-books  of  law  than  in  those  of  poHtics. 
Mr.  Choate  tells  us  that  Mr.  Webster  had  read  and 
weighed  Aristotle,  Cicero,  Machiavelli,  Harrington, 
Milton,  Locke  —  that  in  fact  nothing  in  pohtics 
worthy  of  attention  had  escaped  him;  nothing  of 
the  ancient  or  modern  jurisprudence;  nothing  which 
Greek  or  Roman  or  European  speculation  in  that 
walk  had  explored,  or  Greek  or  Roman  or  Euro- 
pean or  universal  history  or  public  biography  had 
exemplified. 

I  cannot  err  in  asking  you  to  follow  such  illustrious 
examples  in  thoroughly  furnishing  your  minds  for 
public  life  by  the  pursuit  of  these  generous  studies. 
But  if  you  never  try  the  discomforts  of  official 
station,  such  studies  will  not  be  without  their  high 
uses.  May  I  venture  to  suggest  by  way  of  caution 
that  those  of  you  who  enter  upon  public  life  be  care- 
ful not  to  forget  when  at  the  Bar  your  legal  habits 

[212] 


THE     INFLUENCE    OF     THE     LAWYER 

and  methods.  I  suppose  a  careful  analysis  would 
show  that  the  habits  of  mind  which  practice  at  the 
Bar  cultivates  differ  somewhat  from  those  which  are 
fostered  by  service  in  the  halls  of  legislation  and 
on  the  husting  or  the  stump.  So  true  is  this  that 
it  is  somewhat  rare  to  find  a  man  who  stands 
indisputably  first  in  both  spheres  of  action.  Am  I 
wrong  in  supposing  that  while  the  work  of  the  lawyer 
is  by  no  means  unfriendly  to  depth  and  grasp  of 
mind,  it  does  tend  to  cultivate  precision,  acuteness, 
a  strictly  logical  power,  and  a  respect  for  precedents 
more  than  the  career  of  a  Congressman  or  a  Com- 
moner, while  the  life  of  the  latter  may  perhaps  more 
directly  tend  to  give  largeness  of  view,  to  develop 
the  talent  of  popular  address,  but  also  to  temper 
the  remorselessness  of  logic  by  a  rhetorical  or  political 
compromise.  Whatever  the  difference  may  consist 
in,  there  certainly  is  one,  and  it  behooves  you  to 
beware  of  the  fact.  In  whichever  arena  you  do 
battle,  use  the  weapons,  and  only  those,  which  belong 
to  that  arena.  And  be  not  impatient  to  exchange 
those  which  you  wield  triumphantly  in  the  halls  of 
justice  for  those  which  are  used  in  the  senate  house. 
Success,  fairly  won  in  the  former,  is  not  less  honorable, 
perhaps  not  less  useful,  than  in  the  latter.  I  hope 
that  no  words  of  mine  may  be  taken  as  advice  to 
you  generally  to  seek  any  other  employment  than 
the  legitimate  work  of  your  profession.  The  worthy 
ambition  of  any  one  of  you  might  justly  be  satisfied 
with   the  attainment  of   a  respectable  position   in 

[213] 


SELECTED      ADDRESSES 


the  profession  of  which  Sir  James  Mackintosh  says, 
"it  furnishes  the  most  honorable  occupation  of  the 
understanding,"  and  with  your  admission  to  a  be- 
coming place  in  that  brotherhood  which  has  been 
rendered  illustrious  by  its  Marshalls  and  Mansfields 
and  Hales  and  L'Hopitals  and  so  many  of  the  wisest 
and  noblest  and  most  gifted  of  men.  Glory  enough 
might  it  be  for  most  of  you  to  be  able  to  say  at  the 
end  of  your  career  that  you  have  brought  no  stain 
upon  the  escutcheon  of  the  illustrious  fraternity 
who  will  soon  open  wide  their  gates  to  welcome  you 
to  their  goodly  fellowship. 

I  cannot  but  appeal  to  your  pride  in  looking  for- 
ward to  a  profession  whose  highest  tribunal  is  in  the 
exercise  of  its  constitutional  powers  just  now  wield- 
ing so  mighty  and  beneficent  an  influence  towards  the 
estabhshment  of  a  permanent  international  court, 
whose  peaceful  procedure  shall  take  the  place  of  war 
in  settling  international  controversies.  Our  nation 
has  played  a  large  part  in  providing  through  The 
Hague  conferences  for  arbitral  tribunals  and  for 
setting  the  example  to  the  world  of  resorting  to 
them.  As  our  Supreme  Court  in  determining  suits 
between  sovereign  states  is  the  first  and  only  court 
in  the  world  to  exercise  such  powers,  the  European 
statesmen,  unaccustomed  to  such  judicial  authority 
and  somewhat  puzzled  by  our  example,  are  yet 
listening  to  our  appeals  to  them  to  join  with  us  in 
establishing  not  merely  arbitral  tribunals  on  special 
occasions,  but  also  permanent  international  tribunals, 

[214] 


THE     INFLUENCE     OF     THE     LAWYER 

composed  of  permanent  judges  rather  than  temporary- 
arbiters  to  settle  with  authority  the  controversies  of 
states,  as  our  Supreme  Court  has  long  settled  them 
between  the  States  of  our  own  nation.  Our  Secretary 
of  State  speaks  hopefully  of  the  negotiations  he 
is  now  conducting  on  the  subject.  Our  supreme 
national  tribunal  will,  in  case  of  success,  be  the 
prototype  of  the  great  tribunal  of  the  world  and  the 
most  powerful  conservator  of  peace. 

In  conclusion,  may  I  say  that  if  any  one  of  you  is 
ambitious  to  exert  a  beneJBcent  influence  outside  of 
your  profession  for  which  the  world  is  so  indebted  to 
your  brethren,  you  must  be,  and  every  one  can  be, 
something  more  than  a  human  digest  of  statutes  or  a 
walking  volume  of  reports.  Serve  your  profession 
as  though  she  were  your  bride,  giving  her  your  affec- 
tion, your  talent,  and  your  zeal,  even  though  she  be 
a  jealous  bride.  But  remember,  the  larger  and  the 
richer  is  your  general  culture,  the  more  complete  and 
balanced  is  your  intellectual  and  moral  development, 
the  more  a  rich  and  generous  manhood  overlaps  and 
enfolds  and  transfuses  and  inspires  your  profession, 
the  broader  and  deeper  and  more  enduring  will  be 
your  influence  as  a  lawyer,  a  citizen,  a  statesman,  and 
a  man. 


[215] 


VIII 

THE   INADEQUATE    RECOGNITION   OF 
DIPLOMATISTS  BY  HISTORIANS 


JULY  11,  1893 

INAUGURAL    ADDRESS    AS    PRESIDENT    OF    THE 

AMERICAN    HISTORICAL    ASSOCIATION 

DELIVERED    AT   CHICAGO 


VIII 

THE    INADEQUATE    RECOGNITION   OF 
DIPLOMATISTS    BY   HISTORIANS 

1  HE  scholars  of  our  time  have  often  congratulated 
themselves  that  historical  writers  have  in  these 
later  years  been  giving  a  wider  scope  to  their  work 
than  the  older  historians  gave  to  theirs.  These 
later  writers,  in  describing  the  history  of  a  nation, 
have  not  confined  themselves  to  the  records  of  battles 
and  of  court  intrigues  and  of  royal  genealogies. 
They  have  deemed  it  proper  to  give  us  some  idea  of 
the  progress  of  the  nation  in  letters,  in  art,  in  science, 
in  economic  development,  in  religion,  in  all  that 
makes  up  what  we  call  civilization.  They  have 
attempted  to  give  us  a  vivid  and  accurate  conception 
of  the  forces  and  the  processes  which  have  made 
nations  what  they  are.  And  they  have  had  in  mind 
the  true  ideal  of  the  historian's  task. 

But  in  the  course  of  my  studies  I  have  been  led 
to  the  conviction  that  most  of  the  general  historical 
narratives  have  failed  to  set  forth  with  sufficient 
fulness  the  important  features  of  great  diplomatic 
transactions,  and  have  failed  even  more  signally 
in  specific  recognition  of  the  signal  merits  of  many 
of  the  gifted  negotiators  of  epoch-making  treaties. 
The  work  of  international  congresses,  which  have 
[219] 


SELECTED      ADDRESSES 


remade  the  map  of  Europe  or  the  maps  of  other 
continents,  which  have  extinguished  the  Hfe  of  proud 
and  ancient  states  or  have  created  new  states,  which 
have  given  larger  freedom  to  commerce  and  wider 
liberty  in  the  use  of  the  high  seas,  which  have  miti- 
gated the  cruelties  of  war  and  have  swept  the  slave 
trade  from  the  ocean;  this  work,  so  wide  and  far- 
reaching  in  its  influence,  of  the  diplomatic  representa- 
tives of  powerful  states  has  been  often  passed  over 
altogether  by  historians  of  renown  or  dismissed  with 
the  most  succinct  summary  which  was  possible. 
Even  where  the  results  of  negotiations  are  given  it  is 
rare  that  one  finds  any  fairly  complete  account  of 
the  processes  by  which  these  results  were  reached. 
May  we  not  fairly  ask  whether  to  the  reader  of 
ordinary  intelligence  the  important  details  of  the 
discussions  and  deliberations  in  the  congress  at 
Miinster  are  not  of  as  much  consequence  as  the 
details  of  any  battle  of  the  Thirty  Years'  War? 
Are  not  the  particulars  of  the  debates  between 
Franklin  and  Jay  and  John  Adams  on  the  one  side, 
and  Oswald  and  Strachey  and  Fitzherbert  on  the 
other,  in  framing  our  Treaty  of  Independence,  of  as 
much  interest  and  consequence  as  the  details  of 
the  battle  of  Trenton? 

But  even  when  the  results  of  negotiations  are 
given  with  some  fulness  and  estimated  with  justice, 
for  the  most  part  little  or  none  of  the  credit  which 
is  due  is  given  to  the  men  who  have  brought  the 
negotiations  to  a  successful  issue.     Generally  not 

[  220  ] 


RECOGNITION     OF     DIPLOMATISTS 

even  their  names  are  mentioned.  The  consequence 
is  that  no  class  of  public  servants  of  equal  merit  is 
so  inadequately  appreciated  even  by  those  who  are 
pretty  well  read  in  history.  Our  very  school  children 
are  so  taught  that  the  names  of  great  generals, 
Wallenstein  and  Tilly,  Marlborough  and  Prince 
Eugene,  Turenne  and  Conde,  Washington  and 
Greene,  are  familiar  to  them.  But  if  you  will  try 
a  simple  experiment,  as  I  have  done  several  times, 
upon  persons  of  cultivation,  I  venture  the  guess 
that  you  will  find  that  scholars  of  considerable 
familiarity  with  European  history  cannot  tell  and 
cannot  say  that  they  have  ever  known  who  were  the 
principal  negotiators  of  the  Peace  of  Westphalia, 
or  of  treaties  of  such  historical  importance  as  those 
of  Nimeguen,  Ryswick,  Utrecht,  or  Paris  of  1763, 
or  Paris  of  1856.  And  the  reason  is  not  far  to  seek. 
It  is  because  most  of  the  general  histories  of  the 
periods  to  which  those  treaties  belong  have  little 
or  nothing  to  say  of  the  envoys  who,  with  much 
toil  and  discussion,  wrought  them  out.  To  learn 
the  names  of  those  neglected  men,  and  especially 
to  learn  anything  of  their  personality,  one  must  have 
recourse  to  special  diplomatic  histories  or  personal 
memoirs,  when  such  can  be  found. 

If  my  impression  of  the  treatment  which  important 
diplomatic  work  has  received  in  most  of  our  general 
histories  is  correct,  I  think  we  shall  all  agree  that 
they  are  seriously  deficient  in  this  regard.  If  any 
events  in  European  history  for  the  last  two  centuries 

[221  ] 


SELECTED      ADDRESSES 


and  a  half  have  been  of  vital  importance,  the  negotia- 
tion of  some  of  the  treaties  I  have  named  must  be 
ranked  as  such.  When  we  recall  how  the  Peace  of 
Westphalia  weakened  the  German  Empire,  strength- 
ened France,  adjusted  the  relations  of  the  three  great 
branches  of  the  church  in  Germany,  and  practically 
established  the  modern  state  system  of  Europe;  or 
how  the  Treaty  of  Utrecht  permanently  separated 
the  crowns  of  France  and  Spain,  added  to  England's 
possessions  Newfoundland,  Hudson  Bay,  Acadia, 
St.  Kitts,  Gibraltar,  and  IVIinorca,  and  fixed  the 
Hanoverian  succession,  enlarged  the  power  of  Savoy, 
and  recognized  the  King  of  Prussia;  how  the  Treaty 
of  Paris  of  1763  gave  Canada  and  the  Floridas  and 
the  navigation  of  the  Mississippi  to  England,  and 
how  the  Treaty  of  Paris  of  1856  abolished  privateer- 
ing and  established  new  guarantees  to  neutral  trade 
upon  all  the  seas,  who  shall  say  that  the  framing  of 
these  treaties  and  of  others,  hardly  less  important, 
does  not  deserve  ample  treatment,  and  that  the  talent 
and  skill  of  the  men  who  negotiated  them  does  not 
deserve  generous  recognition  in  our  more  important 
general  histories  as  well  as  in  the  special  diplomatic 
histories? 

The  distinguished  publicist,  Pradier-Fodere,  has 
well  said  that  a  good  minister  is  sometimes  equal  to 
an  army  of  a  hundred  thousand  men.  Pyrrhus  is 
credited  with  the  remark  that  his  envoy,  Cyneas, 
had  given  him  more  cities  than  any  of  his  generals. 
John  Adams,  who  filled  so  many  high  oflSces  with 

[222] 


RECOGNITION     OF     DIPLOMATISTS 

honor,  was  apparently,  and  justly,  prouder  of  his 
treaty  with  the  Netherlands,  which  he  procured  in 
the  face  of  wellnigh  insuperable  obstacles,  than  of 
almost  any  other  achievement  of  his  life.  His  no 
less  distinguished  son,  John  Quincy  Adams,  declared 
that  he  considered  his  signature  of  the  so-called 
Florida  Treaty  with  Spain  in  1819  the  most  impor- 
tant event  of  his  life. 

It  may  be  said  in  answer  to  my  plea  for  the  ampler 
recognition  of  the  services  of  great  diplomatists  that 
they  only  register  the  results  which  the  great  soldiers 
have  really  secured,  and  therefore  deserve  less  fame 
than  the  generals.  To  this  two  rejoinders  can  fairly 
be  offered:  first,  while  war  may  decide  that  one 
nation  is  to  gather  the  larger  part  of  the  fruits  of  a 
negotiation  with  another,  it  does  not  decide  the 
details  of  the  settlement  to  be  made.  And  in  fixing 
these,  in  determining  with  large  foresight  the  con- 
sequences of  particular  adjustments,  in  felicity  of 
statement,  in  cogency  of  discussion,  in  knowledge 
of  international  law,  in  weight  of  personality,  the 
representatives  of  the  conquered  nation  may,  and 
often  do,  win  back  much  of  what  seemed  to  have 
been  wrested  away  by  the  victorious  sword  of  the 
antagonist.  The  skilful  diplomatists  of  Louis  XIV 
repeatedly  enhanced  the  value  of  his  victories  and 
diminished  the  losses  incurred  by  his  defeats.  The 
American  victory  at  Yorktown  determined  the 
fact  that  we  should  somehow  have  our  indepen- 
dence, but  we  owe  it  to  our  commissioners  at  Paris, 

[223] 


SELECTED      ADDRESSES 


especially  to  Jay,  rather  than  to  the  generals  in 
command  of  our  armies,  that  Great  Britain  was  con- 
strained to  treat  with  us  as  an  equal  and  independent 
nation,  that  we  did  not  accept  independence  as  a 
grant  from  the  mother  country,  that  our  treaty 
was  a  treaty  of  partition  and  not  of  concession. 
The  important  results  of  that  fact  are  familiar  to  us 
all.  By  no  means  is  the  work  of  the  negotiator  done 
by  the  military  commander. 

And,  secondly,  some  of  the  most  important 
negotiations  are  not  the  consequence  of  war,  are  not 
preceded  by  war.  Rather  they  serve  to  prevent 
war.  Take  as  an  example  the  Treaty  of  Washington 
of  1871,  popularly  known  as  the  Alabama  Treaty. 
It  was  drawn  to  remove  the  dangerous  causes  of 
dissension  between  us  and  Great  Britain.  Few 
events  in  our  national  life  have  been  of  more  conse- 
quence than  the  negotiation  and  execution  of  that 
treaty.  It  belongs  to  so  recent  a  date  that  most  of 
us  remember  distinctly  the  meeting  of  the  high  joint 
commissioners  who  framed  it.  Does  any  one  now 
question  the  supreme  importance  of  their  work? 
And  yet  how  few  even  of  the  well-informed  citizens 
of  Great  Britain  or  of  the  United  States  can  repeat 
the  names,  I  will  not  say  of  all,  but  of  the  most 
prominent  members  of  that  commission.  Do  our 
school  children  find  them  given  in  any  of  the  manuals 
of  United  States  history  which  are  placed  in  their 
hands? 

It  is  then  far  from  true  that  the  value  of  the 
[224] 


RECOGNITION     OF     DIPLOMATISTS 


services  of  diplomatists  is  wholly  dependent  on  the 
deeds  of  the  soldier.  In  some  cases  it  is  not  true 
that  they  are  at  all  determined  by  military  achieve- 
ments. There  is  no  good  reason  why  the  historian 
should  with  emphasis  dwell  on  the  skill  of  generals 
and  be  silent  concerning  the  genius  and  the  work  of 
great  masters  of  the  diplomatic  art. 

Let  us  now  notice  briefly  what  we  do  find  in  some 
of  our  histories  concerning  a  few  important  treaties 
and  the  men  who  drew  them.  Take  the  great 
treaties  negotiated  at  Miinster  and  Osnabruck,  to 
which  as  a  whole  the  name  of  the  Peace  of  West- 
phalia is  generally  given.  All  will  agree  that  it  is 
one  of  the  most  important  events  in  the  history  of 
modern  Europe.  Of  course  no  history  of  the  great 
continental  states  in  the  seventeenth  century  can 
altogether  omit  reference  to  it.  But  if  we  turn  to 
Dyer's  Modern  Europe,  or  Russell's  Modern  Europe, 
or  Crowe's  France,  or  among  German  works  to 
Kohlrausch's  History  of  Germany  or  to  Menzel's, 
the  subject  is  touched  very  lightly  or  not  at  all,  and 
nothing  can  be  learned  from  them  about  the  negotia- 
tions. Coxe's  House  of  Austria,  which  gives  a  good 
succinct  summary  of  the  treaties,  is  silent  about 
the  men  who  made  them.  One  might  suppose  that 
Gindely's  Thirty  Years'  War  would  at  least  have 
had  a  closing  chapter  on  the  treaties.  But  it  has 
not  a  word,  though  the  American  translator  has 
added  a  chapter  in  which  some  attention  is  given 
to  the  subject.     And  apparently  the  call  upon  the 

[225] 


SELECTED      ADDRESSES 


author  by  readers,  who  were  surprised  at  his  omission, 
led  him  to  pubhsh  a  little  supplemental  brochure  to 
supply  it.  Martin,  the  French  historian,  treats  the 
subject,  as  he  does  other  negotiations,  with  consid- 
erable fulness,  and  gives  his  readers  an  idea  of  who 
the  negotiators  were. 

But  if  one  would  learn  much  of  the  details  of  the 
transactions  or  of  the  traits  even  of  the  leading 
negotiators,  one  must  turn  to  such  special  histories 
as  Bougeaut's  Histoire  des  Guerres  et  des  Nego- 
ciations  qui  precederent  le  Traite  de  Westphalie 
and  Le  Clerc's  Negociations  Secretes  or  Garden's 
Histoire  des  Traites  de  Paix.  He  could  there 
find  that  France  was  represented  by  the  Count 
d'Avaux,  who  had,  on  an  embassy  to  Venice,  settled 
a  difficult  question  about  Mantua,  that  he  had 
secured  a  truce  between  Poland  and  Sweden,  that 
he  had  negotiated  a  treaty  at  Hamburg,  which 
prepared  the  way  for  .the  Peace  of  Westphaha,  and 
that  he  was  a  man  of  large  skill  and  experience; 
also  by  Servien,  the  Count  de  la  Roche  des  Aubiers, 
who  had  been  Secretary  of  State  under  Richelieu, 
had  seen  diplomatic  service,  and  had  by  his  brilliancy 
become  a  favorite  of  Mazarin,  and  finally  by  the 
renowned  Due  de  Longueville.  He  could  see  that 
Sweden  had  sent  to  the  congress  the  son  of  the  great 
Chancellor  Oxenstiern,  a  man  of  large  learning  and 
capacity,  and  Salvius,  who  had  won  the  favor  of 
his  Queen  Christina.  He  would  learn  that  the  Empire 
had  in  Dr.  Volmar  and  Count  Trautsmandorf  envoys 

[226] 


RECOGNITION     OF     DIPLOMATISTS 

who  were  in  ability  and  good  sense  peers  of  any  in 
that  great  assembly,  and  that  Venice  was  represented 
by  Contarini,  who  had  rendered  conspicuous  public 
services  at  the  principal  courts  of  Europe,  and  that 
the  mediator  sent  by  the  Pope  was  Fabio  Chigi, 
afterwards  raised  to  the  Holy  See  by  the  title  of 
Alexander  VII,  and  that  he  was  one  of  the  shrewdest 
and  most  experienced  diplomatists  present.  Not  to 
mention  any  of  the  one  hundred  and  forty  others 
whose  names  are  given  by  Garden,  surely  these 
dominant  men,  who  shaped  the  great  settlement 
from  which  in  an  emphatic  sense  what  we  call  modern 
Europe  may  be  said  to  date  its  life,  might  well  have 
their  names  recalled  and  their  work  recognized 
as  theirs  by  any  historian  of  the  seventeenth 
century. 

If  we  pause  to  notice  the  three  principal  treaties  of 
the  reign  of  Louis  XIV,  those  of  Nimeguen,  Ryswick, 
and  Utrecht,  we  shall  find  a  very  slight  treatment 
of  them  in  several  histories  of  repute.  From  Dyer 
and  Russell  and  Crowe  the  reader  will  learn  little 
or  nothing.  Green's  larger  work  on  England  has 
the  briefest  possible  notice  of  these  treaties.  Even 
Philipson  in  his  volume  on  the  Age  of  Louis  XIV, 
forming  a  part  of  Oncken's  great  Historical  Series, 
while  giving  the  results  of  the  treaties,  says  hardly 
anything  of  the  men  who  negotiated  them.  Martin 
gives  some  of  the  names,  but  not  all,  and  does  not 
dwell  on  the  merits  of  the  men  he  does  name.  Lecky 
says  he  omits  any  detailed  account  of  the  Treaty  of 

[227  1 


SELECTED      ADDRESSES 


Utrecht  because  it  is  fully  described  elsewhere,  as, 
in  fact,  it  is  in  Stanhope's  Queen  Anne.  Hume  is 
reasonably  full  on  the  negotiations  at  Nimeguen, 
Macaulay  on  Ryswick,  and  Capefigue  on  both. 
In  general  the  French  historians  as  a  class  have  given 
more  attention  to  diplomatic  history  than  either  the 
Germans  or  the  English. 

When  we  remember  that  in  the  making  of  the 
treaties  referred  to  such  men  as  Colbert-Croisse, 
Cailleres,  De  Harlay  and  Polignac  of  France,  and  Sir 
William  Temple  and  Hyde  and  Sir  Leoline  Jenkins 
of  England,  and  Van  Bevening  of  the  Nether- 
lands were  engaged,  may  we  not  fairly  ask  whether 
some  special  attention  might  not  have  been  given  to 
them  by  the  historians  of  their  period.' 

With  the  single  exception  of  the  great  Treaty  of 
Vienna  of  1815,  we  shall  find  the  case  much  the  same 
in  more  recent  European  history.  The  names  of 
any  of  the  negotiators  of  the  Treaty  of  Paris  of  1856, 
which  summed  up  the  results  of  the  Crimean  war 
and  introduced  perhaps  the  most  important  changes 
in  maritime  affairs  ever  made  by  a  single  treaty,  are 
not  so  much  as  mentioned  in  Justin  McCarthy's 
interesting  History  of  our  Time. 

It  is  but  just  to  say  that  the  American  historians, 
especially  Hildreth  and  Bancroft,  have  set  a  better 
example  in  writing  of  the  treaties  made  by  the 
United  States  in  the  period  covered  by  their  works. 
But  the  authors  of  our  school  manuals  of  American 
history  give  the  children   little  or  no  information 

[  228  ] 


RECOGNITION     OF     DIPLOMATISTS 

concerning  the  diplomatic  labors  of  the  men  who,  by 
their  skill,  helped  win  in  Europe  those  victories  in 
the  council  chamber  which  were  as  influential  in 
securing  our  independence  as  the  battles  of  Saratoga 
and  Yorktown. 

If  we  cannot  justify  the  neglect  of  many  historians 
to  treat  with  sufficient  fulness  the  work  of  diploma- 
tists, we  can  perceive  some  of  the  causes  of  that 
neglect.  That  work  does  not  appeal  to  the  im- 
agination and  excite  the  passions  of  men  like  the 
battles  of  the  warrior.  The  processes  by  which  it  is 
accomplished  are  often,  perhaps  generally,  guarded 
by  governments  with  more  or  less  secrecy.  Even 
when  the  French  and  Spanish  ambassadors  used  to 
make  their  entry  into  a  capital  with  great  display, 
their  discussions  in  a  congress  and  their  despatches 
were  not  given  to  the  public.  Flassan  (I,  37)  well 
says,  "The  lot  of  negotiators  is  less  favorable  for 
celebrity  than  that  of  generals.  Their  works  are 
often  buried;  if  recent,  they  cannot  be  made  public; 
if  they  have  become  a  little  old,  they  lack  interest, 
unless  the  pen  which  has  traced  them  has  such  a 
superior  style  that  we  can  regard  them  as  models 
of  logic  and  of  human  wisdom." 

But  if  the  reader  is  more  dazzled  by  the  descrip- 
tion of  battles  than  of  even  the  most  important 
negotiations,  is  it  not  the  duty  of  the  historian  to 
correct  his  bad  taste  or  to  disregard  it  by  setting 
forth  in  due  proportions  what  is  really  important, 
and  by  giving  to  great  negotiators  the  credit  which 

[229] 


SELECTED      ADDRESSES 


is  really  their  due  for  promoting  the  interests  of 
their  country  and  of  humanity? 

While  general  histories  should  give  more  attention 
to  the  important  features  in  diplomatic  work,  it 
seems  desirable  that  the  diplomatic  history  of  each 
nation  should  be  written  by  some  one  of  its  own 
citizens.  It  is  due  to  each  nation  that  its  diplomatic 
relations  be  set  forth  in  such  a  special  work  in  more 
detail  than  the  general  historian  can  properly  resort 
to  in  his  narrative.  The  custodians  of  the  archives 
can  give  more  liberty  to  one  of  their  fellow-citizens 
in  examining  papers  than  they  sometimes  are  free 
to  grant  to  foreigners.  But  more  liberality  in  the 
use  of  documents,  and  at  the  same  time  more  care 
in  preserving  them,  may  well  be  exercised  by 
governments. 

So  impartial  an  editor  as  De  Martens  complains 
in  the  preface  to  his  Nouveau  Recueil  de  Traites  that 
he  has  been  unable  to  procure  many  important 
documents  which  he  needed,  because  they  had 
not  been  published  or  because  governments  were 
unwilling  to  communicate  them  to  him. 

In  some  countries,  notably  in  England,  a  large 
part  of  the  most  valuable  material  for  diplomatic 
history  is  carried  off  by  the  foreign  secretaries  as 
they  leave  office.  This  material  consists  of  the 
confidential  letters  from  the  ministers  who  are  rep- 
resenting the  country  abroad.  These  letters  are 
regarded  in  Great  Britain  as  the  private  property 
of  the  foreign  secretary.     They  contain  often  more 

[230] 


RECOGNITION     OF     DIPLOMATISTS 

valuable  information  than  the  formal  despatches. 
Being  carried  away,  they  are  sometimes  lost.  Some- 
times they  appear  in  the  publication  of  family  papers 
of  the  secretaries,  divorced  from  the  documents 
which  should  explain  or  modify  them.  It  may  be  a 
question  whether  in  that  country  and  in  ours  some 
provision  should  not  be  made  for  preserving  in  the 
archives  even  these  personal  letters  to  the  secretaries, 
or  such  parts  of  them  as  concern  public  business, 
so  that  the  Government  may  have  all  the  facts  within 
reach  and  may  permit  them  to  be  used  by  the 
historian  when  the  proper  time  comes  for  a  full 
diplomatic  history. 

Several  nations  have  published  or  have  permitted 
the  publication  of  their  treaties.  In  addition  to 
Barbeyrac's  Collection  of  Ancient  Treaties  and  the 
vast  Corps  Diplomatique  Universel  of  Dumont, 
we  have  the  Acta  Foedera  Publica  of  Rymer,  the 
Regesta  Diplomatica  of  Georgisch,  the  Codex  Italiae 
Diplomaticus  of  Lunig,  the  collections  of  Abreu  for 
Spain,  the  Codex  Diplomaticus  of  Leibnitz,  the  great 
Recueils  of  Modern  Treaties  by  De  Martens  and 
his  successors,  the  British  Treaties  of  Hertslet,  the 
Collection  of  the  United  States,  the  South  American 
Treaties,  edited  by  Calvo,  and  other  collections. 
We  have  also  Koch  and  Schoell's  History  of  Treaties. 
But  of  diplomatic  histories,  which  give  us  full 
accounts  of  the  origin  and  details  and  results  of 
negotiations,  and  make  known  to  us  the  person- 
ality and  the  influence  and  merits  of  the  men  who 

[231] 


SELECTED      ADDRESSES 


conducted  them,  and  enable  us  to  understand  the 
Hving  forces  which  accomphshed  the  results  attained, 
of  these  we  have  but  few.  The  French,  with  the 
renowned  works  of  Flassan  and  Garden  and  Lefebvre, 
have  outstripped  all  other  nations. 

Flassan,  in  speaking  of  such  works  as  the  Histoire 
des  Traites  by  St.  Preux,  Mably's  Du  Public  de 
I'Europe,  and  Koch's  Abrege  des  Traites,  well  says: 
"In  speaking  of  events  they  have  said  nothing  of 
persons,  although  these  lend  great  interest  to  a 
diplomatic  work.  It  is  not  sufficient  to  give  the 
principal  articles  of  a  treaty  of  peace  and  to  add  a 
sketch  of  the  events  which  have  preceded  it.  One 
should  as  far  as  possible  make  us  acquainted  with 
the  negotiator,  indicate  the  forces  brought  into  play 
on  either  side,  the  principal  debates  in  the  confer- 
ences, the  obstacles  overcome,  and  sum  up  in  im- 
partial conclusions  the  results  of  the  treaty  or  of  the 
action  of  the  cabinet  which  they  are  discussing." 

Mr.  Trescot  in  his  two  little  volumes  on  the  earlier 
chapters  in  our  diplomatic  history;  Mr.  LjTiian  in 
his  more  extensive  work;  IVIr.  Schuyler  in  his  mono- 
graph on  certain  chapters  in  our  history;  the  former 
president  of  the  American  Historical  Association, 
Mr.  John  Jay,  in  his  chapter  in  Winsor's  History  on 
the  Negotiation  of  the  Treaty  of  Independence,  and 
Mr.  Henry  Adams  in  his  Administrations  of  Jefferson 
and  Madison,  have  well  supplemented  Hildreth  and 
Bancroft,  and  Mr.  Rhodes  in  his  recent  work  has 
given  long-neglected  recognition  to  the  services  of 

[232] 


RECOGNITION     OF     DIPLOMATISTS 

Secretary  Marcy.  But  a  full  and  connected  history 
of  American  diplomacy,  in  the  light  of  present  knowl- 
edge, is  still  a  desideratum. 

It  has  seemed  to  me  eminently  appropriate  to 
discuss  this  theme  now  in  this  age  of  arbitration,  and 
here  where  the  world  is  holding  its  great  industrial 
congress  of  peace.  It  is  meet  that  we  should  empha- 
size the  importance  of  pacific  negotiations  as  the 
desirable  method  of  settling  international  difficulties 
by  giving  the  deserved  place  to  the  histories  of  diplo- 
matic labors  and  by  asking  that  historians  should 
place  on  the  heads  of  great  diplomatists  the  laurels 
which  they  merit,  and  of  which  they  have  too  long 
been  robbed,  and  should  give  them  as  honorable  a 
position  upon  their  pages  as  they  assign  to  great 
admirals  and  great  captains.  Let  history  do  what 
she  can  to  perpetuate  the  fraternal  relations  of 
nations  by  glorifying  the  council  chamber  and  the 
arbitrator  at  least  as  much  as  the  field  of  battle  and 
the  warrior. 


[233] 


IX 

THE  EUROPEAN  CONCERT 

AND  THE 

MONROE  DOCTRINE 


JUNE  28,   1905 

A    DISCOURSE   BEFORE  THE 
PHI   BETA    KAPPA    SOCIETY  OF   HARVARD   UNIVERSITY 


IX 


THE   EUROPEAN    CONCERT   AND    THE 
MONROE    DOCTRINE 

OEVEN  years  ago  on  pleasant  June  days  like  this 
I  had  occasion  frequently  to  take  the  charming  sail 
between  Therapia,  the  attractive  summer  residence 
of  the  European  ambassadors  to  the  Ottoman 
Empire,  and  Pera  in  Constantinople.  Often  I  met 
on  the  Bosphorus  the  representatives  of  the  so-called 
Six  Great  Powers  in  their  launches  on  their  way  to 
the  palace  of  Tophane.  There  they  spent  a  good 
part  of  the  summer,  not  altogether  to  their  enjoy- 
ment, as  they  complained,  endeavoring  to  settle  the 
questions  which  the  war  of  the  preceding  year  had 
left  for  adjustment  between  Greece  and  the  Ottoman 
Empire,  and  especially  to  determine  the  disposition 
to  be  made  of  Crete.  So  long  were  they  baffled  in 
their  efforts  to  reach  a  solution  of  the  problems  which 
their  governments  had  committed  to  them  that  the 
diplomatic  wags  from  the  smaller  States  suggested 
that  the  Grandes  Puissances,  as  the  leading  Powers 
styled  themselves,  might  better  be  called  the  Grandes 
Impuissances.  But  what  impressed  an  observer 
trained  in  his  studies  of  international  law  to  believe 
that  in  respect  to  independence  and  equality  all 
States,  small  as  well  as  great,  have  equal  rights, 
was  the  obvious  fact  that  in  the  deliberations  at 

[237  1 


SELECTED      ADDRESSES 


Tophane  so  little  attention  was  paid  to  the  wishes 
of  either  Greece  or  Turkey.  The  question  ever 
before  the  ambassadors  was  simply  what  settlement 
was  best  for  Europe,  or  best  for  the  interests  of  their 
respective  States.  All  questions  of  indemnity,  of 
boundary,  of  administration  were  considered  not 
with  regard  to  the  desires  of  the  belligerent  nations, 
but  with  regard  to  the  quiet,  order,  and  peace  of 
Europe,  which  it  did  not  suit  the  convenience  of 
Europe  to  have   disturbed  at  that  time. 

This  close  view  of  the  European  Concert  in  action 
naturally  started  numerous  inquiries  in  the  mind  of 
an  American  observer,  among  them  the  following: 

What  is  the  origin  of  the  European  Concert.'' 

Is  the  influence  of  its  action  beneficent.'* 

Is  its  pohcy  just.'* 

Has  it  made  inroads  on  those  ancient  postulates 
of  international  law,  the  independence  and  the 
equality  of  States? 

Does  its  existence  have  any  bearing,  present  or 
prospective,  on  American  affairs? 

I  trust  that  a  modest  attempt  to  consider  these 
questions  briefly  may  not  be  deemed  unworthy  of 
this  high  festival  which  annually  gathers  so  many 
scholars  who  are  accustomed  to  study  the  stately 
march  of  nations  and  to  hail  with  delight  any 
approach  to  that  glad  consummation  when  peoples 
shall  secure  the  triumph  of  justice  and  peace  by 
co-operation  and  arbitration  rather  than  waste 
treasure  and  life  in  mortal  combat  with  each  other. 

[238] 


EUROPE     AND     MONROE     DOCTRINE 

The  first  oflScial  use  of  this  term,  the  European 
Concert,  seems  to  be  in  the  seventh  article  of  the 
Treaty  of  Paris  of  1856,  which  summed  up  the  results 
of  the  Crimean  War.  That  article  binds  the  con- 
tracting Powers  to  respect  the  territorial  integrity 
of  the  Ottoman  Empire  and  to  regard  every  act 
opposing  this  as  a  matter  of  general  interest.  That 
was  a  natural  outcome  of  that  war. 

But  the  germ  of  the  fundamental  idea  of  the  Euro- 
pean Concert  is  found  to  antedate  the  Treaty  of 
Paris  by  a  long  period.  The  principle  underlying 
it  is  discernible  in  the  system  of  political  equilibrium 
of  the  Italian  States  in  the  fifteenth  century,  and 
still  more  clearly  in  the  important  adjustments  by 
the  continental  Powers  in  the  Peace  of  Westphalia. 
The  great  colonial  and  commercial  rivalries  of  the 
sixteenth  century  lifted  the  minds  of  statesmen 
above  the  idea  of  personal  conflicts  of  ambitious 
sovereigns  like  Francis  I  and  Charles  V  to  the  con- 
ception of  European  interests  which  needed  to  be 
harmonized  in  such  manner  as  to  secure  repose  and 
peace  to  all.  This  spirit  breathes  through  the  epoch- 
making  Treaty  of  Utrecht  by  which  nearly  a  dozen 
States  composed  their  differences  for  a  time.  I  need 
hardly  say  that  the  striking  illustration  of  the  Euro- 
pean Concert  was  found  in  the  Holy  Alliance  which 
the  audacious  aggressions  of  Napoleon  forced  Great 
Britain,  Austria,  Prussia,  and  Russia  to  form.  The 
odium  which  the  Alliance  afterwards  brought  upon 
itself    by    its    unwarranted    interference    with    the 

[239] 


SELECTED      ADDRESSES 


internal  policy  of  other  States,  European  and  Amer- 
ican, interference  even  with  legitimate  aspirations 
for  freedom,  has  doubtless  often  blinded  men  to  its 
merits  in  saving  Europe  from  the  domination  of  the 
French  conqueror.  Its  faults  were  many  and  griev- 
ous. But  it  kept  alive  the  idea  of  Europe  as  a  whole, 
with  its  rights  and  legitimate  interests,  which  in  the 
name  of  humanity  it  ought  to  protect  against  the 
assumptions  and  aggressions  of  any  one  State. 

In  1831  Great  Britain,  Austria,  Russia,  and  Prussia, 
in  conference  at  London,  having  under  consideration 
the  status  of  the  newly  created  kingdom  of  Belgium, 
declared  that  while  each  nation  has  its  own  rights,  yet 
Europe  has  also  its  rights,  given  to  it  by  the  social 
order,  and  these  rights  the  conference  must  defend. 

In  1841  the  Pentarchy,  comprising  the  four  great 
States  above  named  and  France,  considering  the 
Turkish  questions,  affirmed  that  the  preservation 
of  general  peace  was  the  constant  object  of  their 
solicitude  and  that  the  affairs  of  the  Ottoman  Empire 
must  be  adjusted  in  the  interest  of  Europe,  and  so 
they  have  been  theoretically  at  least,  however  im- 
perfectly, in  practice.  It  was  on  that  ground  that 
the  Treaty  of  San  Stefano,  by  which  Russia  sought 
to  garner  the  fruits  of  her  victory  over  the  Turks, 
was  revised  by  the  Great  Powers  in  the  Treaty  of 
Berlin  in  1878. 

The  congress  of  Paris  in  1856  revised  and  amended 
the  maritime  law  of  Europe  in  the  interest  of  the 
peace  and  prosperity  of  the  whole  continent. 

[240] 


EUROPE     AND     MONROE     DOCTRINE 

It  was  primarily  to  promote  the  welfare  of  Europe 
that  the  Hague  Conference  was  called,  though  its 
scope  was  made  wide  enough  to  sweep  us  within 
the  range  of  its  beneficent   influence. 

Though  the  European  Concert  has  not  been 
strong  enough  to  prevent  within  the  last  half-century 
several  wars  between  Great  Powers,  as  for  instance 
between  France  and  Italy,  between  Italy  and  Austria, 
between  Prussia  and  Austria,  between  Germany  and 
France,  between  Russia  and  Turkey,  yet  it  has  exerted 
an  appreciable  influence  in  favor  of  European  peace 
and  has  dominated  to  a  large  extent  the  policy  of 
the  smaller  States.  Under  the  recognized  doctrines 
of  intervention  and  the  balance  of  power,  large  inva- 
sions of  the  old  doctrines  of  independence  and 
equality  have  been  made  and  justified  until  what  Dr. 
Lawrence  well  calls  the  Primacy  of  the  Great  Powers 
seems  to  be  substantially  established. 

The  present  kingdom  of  Greece  was  not  only 
called  into  being  by  them,  but  in  all  its  chequered 
history  from  1832  down  to  its  foolish  war  with 
Turkey  in  1896  it  has  been  largely  controlled  by 
them.  The  existence  of  Belgium  and  the  neutraliza- 
tion of  its  territory  and  of  that  of  Switzerland  and 
of  that  of  Luxemburg  are  of  course  due  to  the  action 
of  the  Great  Powers.  The  Eastern  question  in  its 
manifold  forms,  affecting  Turkey  and  the  Balkan 
States  in  all  their  frictions  and  disorders,  is  ever 
busying  the  cabinets  of  the  great  States.  The  new 
kingdom  of  Italy  was  received  by  them  into  their 

[241] 


SELECTED      ADDRESSES 


brotherhood  in  1867.  They  have  drawn  no  constitu- 
tion to  define  the  powers  which  they  will  exercise. 
But  in  many  things  they  speak  for  Europe  and  their 
wishes  are  commands  which  the  lesser  Powers  find 
it  wise  and  even  necessary  to  obey.  The  Concert 
of  Europe  is  a  political  fact,  which  cannot  be 
ignored. 

Has  its  influence  been  beneficent  .f*  Has  its  exist- 
ence been  a  good  fortune  to  Europe?  On  the  whole, 
yes.  It  has  tended  to  keep  before  the  nations  the 
broad  view  of  the  peace  and  welfare  of  Europe  as  an 
end  more  desirable  than  the  triumph  of  any  one 
State.  If  it  has  sometimes  cramped  the  autonomy 
and  liberty  of  a  small  State,  on  the  other  hand  it 
has  often  prevented  the  absorption  of  the  small  State 
by  some  greedy  and  tyrannical  neighbor.  Greece 
hampered  in  the  aspirations  of  her  restless  and 
excitable  people  is  more  prosperous  and  happy  than 
she  would  be  under  Turkish  rule  from  which  the 
Concert  delivered  her  and  now  protects  her.  Bel- 
gium, relatively  insignificant,  but  neutralized,  is 
far  more  fortunate  than  she  was  as  the  cockpit  of 
Europe.  Perhaps  the  greatest  failure  of  the  Concert 
is  in  the  Ottoman  Empire  and  the  Balkan  States. 
But  it  must  be  admitted  that  the  problem  there  is 
one  of  extreme  diflBculty.  With  all  the  defects  and 
all  the  abuses  which  can  be  charged  up  against  the 
Concert,  so  signal  have  been  its  benefits  that  the 
distinguished  French  statesman  and  author,  Hano- 
taux,  said  in  a  speech  to  the  French  Chamber  that 

[242] 


EUROPE     AND     MONROE     DOCTRINE 

the  Concert  is  "the  only  tribunal  and  the  only 
authority  to  which  all  can  and  should  bow." 

If  it  infringes  on  the  independence  and  equality  of 
States,  even  of  the  smallest,  can  its  existence  and 
action  be  justified?  I  suppose  few  will  go  so  far 
as  the  learned  Edinburgh  professor,  Lorimer,  and 
declare  that  the  equality  of  States  and  absolute 
independence  may  be  safely  said  to  have  been  re- 
pudiated by  history  as  always  by  reason.  On  the 
contrary  most  of  us  will  hold  that  some  sufficient 
reason  must  be  given  for  disregarding  in  any  degree 
the  old  postulate  that  any  State  is  entitled  to  have 
its  independence  and^equality  of  rights  respected  by 
other  States,  however  many  or  powerful.  Is  there 
any  good  ground  for  the  policy  of  the  European 
Concert?  I  think  that  question  should  be  answered, 
under  certain  reservations,  in  the  affirmative. 

Must  it  not  be  conceded  that  the  Great  Powers 
justly  assume  a  certain  solidarity  of  interest,  cer- 
tainly so  far  as  preventing  European  wars  is  sought? 
Is  there  not  solid  moral  ground  for  esteeming  the 
collective  good  of  Europe  as  of  more  value  than  the 
advantage  of  any  one  State,  especially  if  it  is  a 
relatively  unimportant  State?  May  not  the  Great 
Powers,  if  they  see  a  small  Power  pursuing  a  policy 
dangerous  to  the  general  peace  of  all  or  of  several, 
justly  intervene  to  prevent  it,  as  any  government 
checks  the  violence  of  one  of  its  own  citizens? 
Indeed  the  right  of  intervention  by  one  State  in  the 
afifairs  of  another  in  order  to  secure  its  own  safety 

[243] 


SELECTED      ADDRESSES 


is  freely  recognized.  If  the  order  and  well-being 
of  several  States  are  menaced  by  the  capricious  action 
or  even  by  the  independence  of  one  State,  does  not 
the  right  of  intervention  and  regulation  by  still 
stronger  reason  inhere  in  them?  If  we  may  properly 
assume  a  certain  solidarity  or  community  of  interest 
in  Europe,  do  not  the  best  interests  of  all  the  States 
limit  the  public  action  of  any  one  State  through 
regard  for  the  general  good?  It  was  only  on  this 
principle  that  the  Congress  of  Berlin  could  assume 
to  call  Russia  to  account  for  the  Treaty  of  San 
Stefano.  Of  course  the  intervening  Powers,  however 
strong  or  numerous,  can  be  justified  in  intervention 
only  in  case  their  motives  and  their  acts  can  be 
defended  at  the  bar  of  reason.  Many  interventions 
have  been  wrong  and  deserve  condemnation.  But 
on  the  other  hand  is  it  not  plain  that  certain  inter- 
ventions have  been  beneficial  and  so  commendable? 
Even  so  conservative  a  writer  as  that  high  English 
authority,  Mr.  W.  E.  Hall,  says  *'A  somewhat  wider 
range  of  intervention  than  that  which  is  possessed 
by  individual  States  may  perhaps  be  conceded  to  the 
body  of  States,  or  to  some  of  them  acting  for  the 
whole  in  good  faith  with  sufficient  warrant.  In 
the  general  interests  of  Europe,  for  example,  an  end 
might  be  put  to  a  civil  war  by  the  compulsory  separa- 
tion of  the  parties  to  it,  or  a  particular  family  or  a 
particular  form  of  government  might  be  established 
and  maintained  in  a  country,  if  the  interests  to  be 
guarded  were  strictly  international,  and  if  the  main- 

[  244  ] 


EUROPE     AND     MONROE     DOCTRINE 

tenance  of  the  state  of  things  set  up  were  a  reasonable 
way  of  attaining  the  required  object. 

"Certainly  there  must  always  be  a  likelihood  that 
powers  with  divergent  individual  interests,  acting 
in  common,  will  prefer  the  general  good  to  the  selfish 
objects  of  a  particular  State.  It  is  not  improbable 
that  this  good  may  be  better  secured  by  their  actions 
than  by  free  scope  being  given  to  natural  forces. 
In  one  or  two  instances,  as,  for  example,  in  that 
of  the  formation  of  Belgium,  and  in  the  recent 
one  of  the  arrangements  made  by  the  Congress  of 
Berlin,  and  of  the  minor  interventions  springing  out 
of  it,  settlements  have  been  arrived  at,  or  collisions 
have  been  postponed,  when  without  common  action 
an  era  of  disturbance  might  have  been  indefinitely 
prolonged  and  its  effects  indefinitely  extended. 
There  is  fair  reason  consequently  for  hoping  that 
intervention  by,  or  under  the  sanction  of,  the  body 
of  States  on  grounds  forbidden  to  single  States 
may  be  useful  and  even  beneficent.  Still,  from  the 
point  of  view  of  law,  it  is  always  to  be  remembered 
that  States  so  intervening  are  going  beyond  their 
legal  powers.  Their  excuse  or  their  justification 
can   only  be  a  moral   one." 

I  venture  to  ask  in  respect  to  the  last  two  sentences 
I  have  quoted  from  Mr.  Hall  whether  if  the  acts  of 
intervention  under  consideration  in  any  given  case 
have  an  excuse  or  justification  which  is  a  moral  one, 
the  States  performing  them  can  be  going  beyond  their 
legal  powers,  provided  by  the  phrase  "legal  powers" 

[245] 


SELECTED      ADDRESSES 


we  mean  powers  allowable  under  international  law. 
For  how  do  we  determine  what  powers  are  thus 
allowable  except  by  finding  the  moral  sense  of  nations 
as  expressed  in  their  usages?  And  the  moral  sense 
of  Europe  appears  plainly  to  be  that  the  Great 
Powers  may  infringe  upon  the  independence  and 
equality  of  the  minor  states,  if  such  infringement  is 
essential  to  the  preservation  of  the  general  good. 
If  such  infringement  is  justifiable  on  moral  grounds, 
is  it  not  by  that  fact  to  be  regarded  as  justifiable 
in  international  law? 

Professor  Westlake  of  Cambridge  in  his  Chapters 
on  the  Principles  of  International  Law  points  out 
that  many  States  are  permanently  in  a  state  of  polit- 
ical inferiority  to  others  and  yet  declares  that  their 
legal  equality  is  not  infringed  thereby.  He  shows 
how  the  Congress  of  Berlin  changed  the  boundaries 
of  Servia,  Roumania,  and  Montenegro,  although 
those  states  had  no  seats  in  the  Congress  and  affirms 
that  this  shows  how  political  inequality  is  compatible 
in  the  European  system  with  legal  equality.  The 
validity  of  these  assertions  depends  on  the  definition 
of  the  term  "legal  equality."  But  surely  the  inde- 
pendence and  equality  recognized  as  the  fundamental 
postulates  of  international  law  are  wanting  in  these 
cases.  Whatever  significance  may  be  attached  to 
the  words  "legal  equality,"  it  is  clear  that  eminent 
European  publicists  approve  of  the  European  Con- 
cert and  are  hopeful  of  ultimate  beneficent  results 
from  its  action.     Professor  Westlake  himself  says, 

[246] 


EUROPE     AND     MONROE     DOCTRINE 

"the  fact  is  not  one  to  be  condemned.  It  may  prove 
to  be  a  step  towards  tlie  establishment  of  a  European 
government,  and  in  no  society  can  peace  and  order 
be  permanently  enjoyed  without  a  government." 

Rolin  Jacquemyns,  who  has  contributed  so  much 
to  the  European  discussions  of  grave  questions  in 
international  law,  says  of  the  Concert,  "However 
weak  and  contradictory  the  action  of  this  syndicate 
has  shown  itself  to  be  in  recent  times,  we  must  none 
the  less  respect  in  it  the  germ  of  an  institution  which 
may  at  some  time  by  its  organization  and  develop- 
ment become  extremely  useful  to  the  progress  of 
international  law." 

The  best  public  opinion  in  Europe  is  recognizing 
and  emphasizing  the  fact  that  Great  Powers  which 
have  great  strength  and  influence  have  not  only 
the  right,  but  have  also  the  obligation  to  use  that 
strength  and  influence  for  the  triumph  of  justice  and 
the  promotion  of  peace  in  all  their  international  rela- 
tions. If  wars  come,  they  shall  come  mitigated  by 
such  humane  regulations  as  the  Hague  Conference 
can  devise.  The  collective  interests  of  Europe 
shall  be  paramount  in  importance  to  the  interests 
of  a  particular  State.  The  political  power  of  the 
great  States  must  needs  be  superior  to  that  of  the 
minor  States,  but  the  internal  or  external  contro- 
versies of  the  latter  must  not  be  allowed  to  endanger 
the  quiet  and  prosperity  of  the  continent.  No 
doubt  the  Concert  will  sometimes  be  unjust  or  unwise 
in  the  future  as  it  has  been  in  the  past,  and  will 

[247] 


SELECTED      ADDRESSES 


deserve  and  receive  condemnation.  But  in  many 
emergencies  it  will  be  of  service  in  the  future  as  it 
has  been  in  the  past.  That  it  exists  as  a  great 
Force  cannot  be  denied.  That  it  is  likely  to  be  a 
greater  Force  in  days  to  come  can  hardly  be  doubted. 
It  bids  fair  to  be  a  sort  of  permanent  intellectual 
executive.  It  has  so  many  variable  factors  that 
there  is  danger  of  a  lack  of  stability  and  of  the 
highest  moral  aims.  No  doubt  there  is  the  risk 
that  the  smaller  States  may  in  days'  of  stress  be  cut 
up  into  small  change  to  settle  the  debts  of  the  larger 
States  to  each  other.  But  with  all  its  defects,  present 
and  prospective,  it  seems  to  be  carrying  Europe  as 
far  as  any  arrangement  ever  made  towards  that 
great  continental  confederation  of  which  dreamers 
have  dreamed  and  poets  have  sung,  but  which  has 
not  yet  come  down  out  of  the  skies  to  put  an  end 
to  wrangling  and  injustice  and  war.  By  its  fruits 
it  must  be  judged. 

In  view  of  the  Concert  of  the  Great  Powers  of 
Europe  for  the  control  of  the  affairs  of  their  continent, 
and  of  their  marked  exercise  of  power  over  the  smaller 
States,  have  they  any  cause  to  complain  of  our  policy 
in  attempting  to  prevent  unjust  encroachments  by 
any  of  them  on  the  territory  of  the  weaker  American 
States.'*  By  virtue  of  our  pre-eminence  in  strength 
and  in  political  success  we  have  undertaken  by  our 
Monroe  Doctrine  to  protect  the  States  to  the  south 
of  us  from  unwarrantable  interference.  We  have 
done  this  without  selfish  greed  for  territory.     We 

[248] 


EUROPE     AND     MONROE     DOCTRINE 

have  doubtless  preserved  to  some  of  the  States 
territory  which  but  for  us  would  have  been  lost  to 
them.  We  have  not  deprived  them  of  legal  rights. 
If  we  have  limited  the  foreign  relations  of  Cuba,  it  is 
to  preserve  her  independence  and  to  prevent  our 
complications  with  European  Powers.  We  have 
sought  to  promote  the  highest  interests  of  the  whole 
continent.  We  have  frankly  proclaimed  from  the 
outset  that  one  of  our  motives  was  to  save  ourselves 
from  such  entanglements  and  conflicts  with  European 
Powers  as  would  threaten  us  if  there  was  not  a  limit 
set  to  the  encroachments  of  foreign  states  on  the 
territory  of  either  North  or  South  America.  But 
nowhere  have  we  trenched  upon  the  sovereign  rights 
of  smaller  States  as  the  European  Concert  has  many 
times  done.  I  am  aware  that  some  of  our  own 
citizens  have  charged  that  in  the  Panama  affair 
we  have  in  the  treatment  of  Colombia  followed 
unworthy  examples  set  by  the  Great  Powers.  I  do 
not  so  read  the  history  of  the  separation  of  Panama 
from  Colombia  and  our  recognition  of  the  new  State. 
But  granting  for  the  moment  the  most  unfavorable 
interpretation  of  our  policy,  certainly  Europe  cannot 
complain,  as  indeed  she  has  not  complained.  The 
Great  Powers  speedily  approved  of  our  action. 
And  every  one  must  admit  that  by  the  contemplated 
construction  of  the  Panama  canal  we  are  conferring 
an  immeasurable  benefit  upon  the  world,  including 
Colombia  and  Panama.  While  recognizing  to  the 
full   whatever   blessing   the   Concert   of   the   Great 

[249] 


SELECTED      ADDRESSES 


Powers  has  brought  to  Europe,  we  may  boldly 
challenge  foreign  critics  of  our  Monroe  Doctrine 
to  show  us  any  so  generous  act  of  the  European 
Concert  as  our  liberation  of  Cuba  and  our  guarantee 
to  her  of  her  autonomy  in  the  face  of  all  the  chorus 
of  predictions  from  beyond  the  sea  that  we  should 
never  have  the  magnanimity  to  live  up  to  our  prom- 
ises. One  of  the  most  fertile  islands  in  the  world, 
by  her  situation  of  the  highest  strategic  importance 
to  us,  under  Spanish  rule  a  constant  menace  to  our 
peace,  we  could  have  easily  found  a  thousand 
European  precedents  for  annexing  her  territory,  but 
the  world  knows  that  she  has  an  assurance  as  firm 
as  that  of  Canada  that  she  will  not  be  absorbed  by 
the  Union  until  she  sues  for  admission. 

It  has  of  late  become  the  fashion  in  some  quarters 
to  speak  in  derogatory  terms  of  the  Monroe  Doctrine. 
No  doubt  the  various  interpretations  put  upon  it  in 
the  changing  exigencies  of  our  history  are  puzzling 
to  one  who  attempts  to  define  it  in  terms  covering 
its  various  applications.  No  doubt  the  strain  put 
upon  it  by  the  political  vicissitudes  of  states  like 
Venezuela  and  San  Domingo  is  often  perplexing  to 
our  government.  But  standing  here  on  ground 
made  sacred  by  the  presence,  the  life,  the  teachings 
of  that  great  Harvard  statesman,  John  Quincy 
Adams,  to  whose  matchless  courage  and  far-sighted 
wisdom  we  owe  the  declaration  which  we  call  the 
Monroe  Doctrine,  but  which  might  more  justly  be 
called  the  Adams  Doctrine,  I  for  one  cannot  under- 

[250] 


EUROPE     AND     MONROE     DOCTRINE 

stand  how  any  American  citizen,  and  especially  how 
any  Massachusetts  man,  can  recall  except  with  a 
thrill  of  gratitude  and  admiration  that  the  brave 
Secretary  of  State  was  able  to  inspire  the  slow-moving 
and  lethargic  President  to  fling  out  the  challenge  of 
1823  into  the  face  of  the  Allied  Sovereigns  of  con- 
tinental Europe.  James  Monroe  held  the  trumpet, 
but  John  Quincy  Adams  blew  the  blast.  The  notes 
have  never  died  upon  the  air.  They  were  heard  in 
full  force  when  another  Massachusetts  man,  Richard 
Olney,  sat  in  the  chair  of  Secretary  of  State.  Nor 
are  they  likely  to  die  so  long  as  Harvard  successors 
to  John  Quincy  Adams  hold  the  executive  chair. 

We  are  told  that  the  Republics  of  South  and 
Central  America  are  sometimes  sensitive  because 
we  have  by  ourselves  assumed  this  protective  attitude 
towards  them.  It  is  easy  to  see  how  this  is  possible. 
It  implies  a  certain  dependence  which  is  wounding 
to  national  pride,  though  in  case  of  urgent  need,  as  in 
the  boundary  controversy  between  Venezuela  and 
Great  Britain,  our  aid  was  by  no  means  spurned. 

The  development  of  the  European  Concert  suggests 
the  question  whether  ultimately,  perhaps  in  a  future 
somewhat  remote,  the  larger  states  south  of  us  and 
Canada,  if  she  becomes  entirely  independent,  might 
join  us  in  some  kind  of  a  friendly  American  concert 
to  promote  general  continental  interests  and  to  prevent 
foreign  intrusion.  Is  it  not  conceivable  that  Mexico, 
Brazil,  the  Argentine  Republic,  and  Chili  might 
reach  a  development  that  would  make  this  possible? 

[251  J 


SELECTED      ADDRESSES 


Who  can  say  that  in  a  similar  manner  China  and 
Japan  may  not  make  an  Eastern  Asiatic  concert 
which  shall  work  out  policies  mutually  beneficial 
to  their  common  interests  and  also  useful  to  mankind? 
In  so  doing  they  would  be  following  the  excellent 
advice  given  them  by  General  Grant  in  his  visit  to 
them.  In  my  judgment  nothing  in  his  career  was 
more  creditable  to  his  intelligence  and  his  humane 
spirit  than  the  counsels  he  gave  to  Prince  Kung 
and  Li  Hung  Chang  on  the  one  hand  and  to  the 
Emperor  of  Japan  on  the  other  to  the  efifect  that 
China  and  Japan  should  cultivate  friendly  relations 
with  each  other  and  avoid  contracting  large  debts 
to  Europe.  His  wise  act  deserves  to  be  better 
known  and  more  justly  appreciated  in  this  country. 
It  was  prompted  by  the  same  spirit  which  has  led 
our  recent  administrations  to  take  such  signal  steps 
in  preserving  the  integrity  of  China  and  in  bringing 
to  an  end  the  war  which  has  been  ravaging  the  far ' 
East. 

If  Great  Britain  holding  India,  and  Russia  holding 
Central  and  Northwestern  Asia,  could  come  to  some 
harmonious  understanding  as  to  their  Asiatic  schemes 
what  a  blessing  it  would  be  to  them  and  to  their 
Asiatic  subjects.  Africa  for  the  present  must 
apparently  fall  under  the  European  system. 

It  may  not  be  possible,  perhaps  it  is  not  desirable, 
that  the  European  Concert  should  be  developed  into 
a  constitutional  organization  like  that  imagined 
by  the  Abbe  de  St.  Pierre  or  by  Kant  in  his  scheme 

[252] 


EUROPE     AND     MONROE     DOCTRINE 

for  a  Perpetual  Peace,  lofty  as  were  their  aspirations 
and  beautiful  as  were  their  dreams.  But  if  by 
spontaneous  action  the  Great  Powers  are  ready  to 
act  together,  even  in  partial  control  of  the  minor 
Powers,  so  as  to  secure  with  justice  the  peace  and 
welfare  of  Europe  and  to  discuss  in  a  friendly  spirit 
in  repeated  sessions  of  the  Hague  Conference  the 
principles  which  should  govern  international  rela- 
tions, may  they  not  well  be  pardoned  for  exercising 
a  sort  of  primacy  over  the  minor  states  on  their 
continent?  Every  step  is  welcome  which  helps  the 
world  substitute  deliberation  and  arbitration  for 
war  and  secures  us  the  attainment  of  the  general 
good  rather  than  the  advantage  of  any  one  State, 
great  or  small.  So  it  behooves  us  in  the  exercise 
of  the  primacy,  which  we  have  for  certain  purposes 
claimed  and  exercised  on  the  American  continent, 
to  consider  the  welfare  of  all  the  States  concerned 
as  well  as  our  own  if  we  are  to  command  the  respect 
and  the  assent  of  the  world.  Adhering  to  the 
Monroe  Doctrine  in  this  lofty  spirit,  we  may  rest 
assured  that  our  right  to  do  so  will  not  be  questioned 
by  any  of  the  members  of  the  European  Concert. 
Even  at  some  inconvenience  we  will  continue  to 
discharge  the  high  duty  to  which  Providence  seems 
to  have  called  us  to  shield  the  territory  of  America 
from  European  intrusion.  By  such  a  policy  we  shall 
protect  them  and  protect  ourselves  from  the  perils 
against  which  the  prescience  of  John  Quincy  Adams 
sought  to  guard  us  in  the  early  years  of  the  Republic, 

[253] 


SELECTED      ADDRESSES 


and  which,  but  for  our  maintenance  of  that  policy, 
would  be  as  menacing  now  as  he  deemed  them  in 
his  day. 

I  know  we  are  told  that  there  is  no  longer  any 
danger  of  an  attempt  by  European  states  to  carve  up 
and  gain  possession  of  American  territory.  How 
one  who  sees  what  has  just  been  going  on  in  China  can 
hold  such  a  view  it  is  difficult  to  understand.  Not 
in  the  colonization  frenzy  of  the  sixteenth  century 
was  there  a  more  voracious  greed  for  the  acquisition 
of  foreign  territory  for  the  purpose  of  developing 
and  controlling  trade.  See  how  Russia  pounced  on 
Manchuria  with  its  seven  hundred  thousand  square 
miles  and  vast  resources,  how  Great  Britain  then 
planted  her  foot  upon  Wei-hai-wei,  ever  keeping  her 
eyes  on  the  immense  Yangtse  Valley,  to  be  appro- 
priated in  case  of  a  general  division  of  China,  how 
Germany  on  the  slimsiest  pretexts  got  practical 
control  of  the  rich  province  of  Shantung  with  its 
thirty  millions  of  inhabitants,  and  how  France  was 
watching  the  game  with  its  hands  ready  to  fall  on 
the  province  of  Yunnan  and  so  much  of  Szechuen 
as  could  be  secured,  and  all  this  to  gain  new  and 
large  markets  for  their  products.  What  ground  is 
there  to  believe  that  if  we  withdrew  our  objections 
we  should  not  see  a  similar  scramble  for  all  the  terri- 
tory south  of  us  from  the  Rio  Grande  to  Cape  Horn, 
and  how  easily  would  excuses  be  found  for  conquest 
in  such  controversies  as  have  already  arisen  between 
European  Powers  and  the  Spanish-American  States.'* 

[254] 


EUROPE     AND     MONROE     DOCTRINE 

Some  do  maintain  that  there  is  no  objection  to  this, 
and  that  indeed  it  would  be  better  for  all  that  the 
territory  south  of  us  should  be  divided  among  strong 
European  Powers.  Such  men  may  logically  discard 
the  Monroe  Doctrine.  But  those  who  hold  the 
opinions  of  Jefferson  and  Madison  and  John  Quincy 
Adams,  those  who  feel  the  thrill  of  delight  which  we 
all  felt  when  Mr.  Seward  served  notice  on  Louis 
Napoleon  to  decamp  with  all  his  baggage  without 
delay  from  Mexico  as  Sheridan's  forces  moved  into 
Texas,  those  who  believe  that  it  is  best  for  us,  best 
for  all,  that  America  should  be  kept  for  Americans 
and  governed  by  Americans  will  ever  sustain  our 
government  in  insisting  that  the  European  States, 
whatever  conquests  or  spoliations  they  make  in 
Asia  and  Africa,  shall  make  no  more  on  our  side  of 
the  Atlantic. 


[^55] 


PRESENT  PROBLEMS  IN  THE 

RELATIONS  OF  MISSIONS 

TO  GOVERNMENTS 


APRIL  25,   1900 
READ  AT  (ECUMENICAL  COUNCIL,  NEW  YORK 


X 


PRESENT  PROBLEMS  IN  THE  RELATIONS 
OF   MISSIONS   TO    GOVERNMENTS 

1  HE    problems    in    the    relations    of    missions   to 
governments  may  all  be  brought  under  two  classes: 

1.  Those  involved  in  determining  the  rights  and 
privileges  of  missionaries  in  foreign  lands; 

2.  Those  involved  in  determining  the  duties  of 
governments  in  protecting  missionaries  and  the 
property  of  missionary  societies. 

It  will  aid  us  in  solving  the  problems  in  the  first 
class  if  we  clearly  affirm  at  the  outset  that  the  rights 
and  privileges  of  missionaries  in  foreign  lands  are 
to  be  determined  by  exactly  the  same  principles 
that  determine  the  rights  and  privileges  of  other 
citizens  of  their  country.  Those  principles  are  such 
as  are  given  by  treaties  between  their  own  govern- 
ment and  the  government  of  the  land  in  which  they 
are  at  work,  or  by  general  international  usage. 

It  has  sometimes  been  alleged  that  missionaries 
and  their  friends  claim  for  them  exceptional  rights 
and  privileges  above  those  of  their  fellow-citizens. 
I  am  not  aware  of  any  ground  for  this  charge. 
Certainly  they  have  no  legal  justification  for  such  a 
claim,  except  as  treaties  or  usage  make  discrimina- 
tions in  their  favor.     An  illustration  of  such  dis- 

[259] 


SELECTED      ADDRESSES 


crimination  is  found  in  the  admission,  free  of  duty, 
into  the  Ottoman  Empire  of  the  articles  needed  in 
the  prosecution  of  their  work.  This  is  a  very  ancient 
concession  made  by  the  Ottoman  Government,  and 
the  missionaries  of  all  lands  have  a  perfect  right  to 
avail  themselves  of  it. 

Some  critics  of  missions  seem  to  claim  that  mis- 
sionaries are  not  entitled  to  the  same  treatment 
by  foreign  Powers  as  men  engaged  in  mercantile 
pursuits.  The  tone  of  their  criticisms  indicates 
that  in  their  opinion  a  man  engaged  in  any  trade, 
even  in  selling  spirituous  liquors  in  a  Mohammedan 
country,  may,  if  interfered  with,  properly  invoke 
the  assistance  of  his  government  in  securing  for  him 
the  privilege  of  carrying  on  that  business,  while  a 
missionary,  who  is  attempting  to  teach  the  Gospel 
or  heal  the  sick  without  charge,  if  he  is  interfered 
with  contrary  to  treaties,  may  not  properly  invoke 
such  aid. 

Now  we  are  surely  on  solid  ground  in  affirming 
with  the  utmost  confidence  that  missionaries  have 
the  same  legal  right  to  reside,  travel,  trade,  teach, 
heal,  transact  their  legitimate  business  in  a  foreign 
country  as  any  of  their  fellow-citizens  have  to  follow 
their  chosen  pursuits  there,  unless  by  international 
stipulation  some  limitations  are  imposed  upon  them 
in  respect  to  the  work  they  propose  to  do.  That 
distinguished  Attorney-General  of  the  United  States, 
Caleb  Gushing,  gave  it  as  his  official  opinion  that 
where  it  is  declared   in  the  Fourth  Article  of  our 

[  260  ] 


MISSIONS     TO     GOVERNMENTS 

Treaty  with  Turkey  that  "citizens  of  the  United 
States  of  America,  quietly  pursuing  their  commerce 
.  .  .  shall  not  be  molested,"  the  word  "commerce" 
means  "any  subject  or  object  of  intercourse  what- 
ever." (7  Op.  Att'y  Gen.  567.)  In  the  eye  of  the  law 
missionaries  are  in  a  foreign  land,  primarily,  in  most 
cases,  merely  as  citizens.  They  do  not  and  cannot  lose 
their  citizenship  by  being  missionaries.  They  are 
not  divested  of  a  single  iota  of  their  rights  and 
privileges  as  citizens  by  their  special  calling.  It  is 
therefore  an  injustice  and  an  impertinence  for  critics 
or  for  foreign  Powers  to  discriminate  against  them 
in  defining  their  rights  and  privileges  as  citizens. 

Furthermore,  in  some  countries,  as  for  example 
in  China,  missionaries  have  the  liberty  guaranteed 
to  them  in  specific  terms  to  teach  the  doctrines 
of  the  Christian  faith.  The  Twenty-ninth  Article 
of  our  Treaty  of  1858  with  China  permits  our 
Christian  citizens  or  their  Chinese  converts  to  teach 
as  well  as  to  practise  the  principles  of  Christianity 
in  the  Empire.  It  reads  thus:  "The  principles  of 
the  Christian  religion  as  professed  by  the  Protestant 
and  Roman  Catholic  Churches  are  recognized  as 
teaching  men  to  do  good,  and  to  do  to  others  as 
they  would  have  others  do  to  them.  Hereafter 
those  who  quietly  profess  and  teach  these  doctrines 
shall  not  be  harassed  or  persecuted  on  account  of 
their  faith.  Any  person,  whether  citizen  of  the 
United  States  or  Chinese  convert,  who,  according 
to  these  tenets,  peaceably  teaches  and  practises  the 

[261] 


SELECTED      ADDRESSES 


principles  of  Christianity,  shall  in  no  case  be  inter- 
fered with  or  molested.''  The  right  and  privilege  of 
doing  this  appropriate  work  of  the  missionaries  are 
thus  secured  to  our  citizens  under  the  same  sanctions 
as  the  liberty  of  trade  in  certain  ports.  Therefore 
the  missionary  who  claims  the  right  to  teach  the 
Gospel  there  is  no  more  presuming  or  obtrusive,  so 
far  as  the  matter  of  legal  rights  is  concerned,  than 
the  merchant  who  offers  petroleum  or  flour  for  sale. 

So  in  the  Ottoman  Empire  by  the  usage  of  cen- 
turies, and  specifically  by  the  so-called  Capitulations 
of  1535  with  France  and  later  Capitulations  with 
other  Powers,  and  by  the  provisions  of  the  Treaties 
of  Paris,  1856,  and  Berlin,  1878,  the  missionaries 
have  indisputable  rights  to  maintain  their  hospitals, 
schools  and  chapels,  subject  to  reasonable  provisions 
of  local  law.  There  is  no  ground  for  the  charge, 
sometimes  recklessly  made  by  those  who  are  ignorant 
of  the  legal  relations  of  ecclesiastical  bodies  in 
Turkey  to  the  Government,  that  missionaries  are 
lawless  intruders  in  the  Ottoman  Empire.  They 
are  there  carrying  on  their  work  by  as  unquestionable 
a  legal  right  as  any  foreign  merchant  or  banker  in 
Constantinople. 

But  while  declaring  these  rights  and  privileges  of 
the  missionaries,  we  must  recognize  that  they  are 
to  be  enjoyed,  like  all  rights  and  privileges  of  men 
in  society,  under  certain  limitations.  And  so  far  as 
I  know,  missionaries  and  mission  boards  recognize 
these  limitations.     Let  us  notice  two  of  them. 

[  262  ] 


MISSIONS     TO     GOVERNMENTS 

1.  Missionaries  in  a  foreign  land  have  no  right 
under  color  of  teaching  religion  to  assail  the  lawful 
authority  of  the  Government  or  to  encourage  sub- 
jects to  be  rebellious,  disloyal,  or  disobedient  to  law. 
They  are  not,  for  example,  to  lead  their  disciples  to 
avoid  the  payment  of  taxes  or  the  discharge  of 
military  duties.  They  may  believe  that  the  Govern- 
ment is  bad  and  its  laws  oppressive.  But  they  are 
not  in  the  country  to  carry  on  reform  or  revolution 
in  the  Government.  I  think  that  our  American 
missionaries  have  with  great  discretion  and  fidelity 
observed  this  limitation  upon  their  activities. 

2.  In  the  conduct  of  their  schools  and  in  their 
publications  they  must  conform  to  the  regulations 
fixed  by  law.  If  these  regulations  are  in  violation 
of  the  treaties,  diplomatic  intervention  must  secure 
the  modification  of  them.  In  the  Ottoman  Empire 
our  missionaries  obey  all  the  laws  concerning  the 
establishment  of  their  schools,  the  censorship  of 
text-books,  the  qualifications  of  teachers.  It  is  fair 
to  say  that  the  laws  on  these  subjects  are  not  un- 
reasonable, though  sometimes  exception  is  justly 
taken  to  the  manner  in  which  they  are  executed. 
Sometimes  annoying  and  unwarrantable  interference 
with  the  schools  is  practised  by  officials,  but  the 
Consul  or  the  Minister  interposes  to  stop  it. 

I  would  add  that  it  is  the  moral  duty  of  the  mis- 
sionary, without  always  claiming  all  the  privileges 
to  which  he  is  by  law  entitled,  to  avoid  giving  needless 
offence  to  the  people  among  whom  he  resides  by 

[263] 


SELECTED      ADDRESSES 


disregarding  their  tastes  and  prejudices,  or  even 
their  superstitions.  For  instance,  the  Chinese  con- 
sider that  the  erection  of  a  church,  especially  if 
it  have  a  spire,  in  proximity  to  the  magistrate's 
oflBce,  is  calculated  to  bring  disaster  upon  the  city. 
A  wise  missionary  will  avoid  selecting  such  a  site 
for  his  church,  even  though  he  may  have  bought 
the  site  and  be  legally  entitled  to  erect  his  church 
upon  it.  I  think  the  American  missionaries  have 
usually  shown  courtesy  and  delicacy  and  tact  in 
accommodating  themselves  to  circumstances  so 
as  to  prevent  as  far  as  possible  friction  with  the 
Chinese. 

It  is  also  the  duty  of  the  missionary  to  be  patient 
under  petty  annoyances  and  by  courteous  and  re- 
spectful approach  to  the  local  officials  to  adjust  his 
diflBculties,  if  possible,  without  invoking  the  inter- 
vention of  Consul  or  Minister.  He  thus  strengthens 
his  position  by  sparing  the  local  oflBcial  the  humili- 
ation of  being  called  to  account  by  his  superior. 
Many  of  our  missionaries  have  shown  great  skill 
and  aptness  in  that  kind  of  personal  diplomacy. 

But  none  of  these  limitations  should  be  inter- 
preted to  prevent  our  missionaries  from  using  their 
good  offices  either  directly  with  the  officials  or  in- 
directly through  diplomatic  interposition  to  relieve 
native  converts  from  requirements  and  from  taxes 
obnoxious  to  these  converts  on  Christian  grounds. 
For  instance,  in  Chinese  villages  there  are  at  times 
theatrical  shows  and  festivals,  which  are  in  the  nature 

[264] 


MISSIONS     TO     GOVERNMENTS 

of  religious  offerings  to  gods,  and  all  the  villagers 
are  levied  on  to  meet  the  expenses.  Pung  Kwang 
Fu,  a  former  Chinese  Minister  to  this  country, 
maintained  at  the  Congress  of  Religions  at  Chicago 
that  the  Christian  villagers  are  rightly  required  to 
join  in  defraying  these  expenses.  But  in  1881  at 
my  request  the  Chinese  Government  readily  issued 
decrees  freeing  native  Protestant  converts  from  this 
burden,  which  the  natives  were  reluctant  on  con- 
scientious grounds  to  bear.  The  Roman  Catholic 
converts  had  previously  been  declared  exempt  from 
these  assessments. 

So  our  missionaries  have  very  justly  on  many 
occasions  petitioned  the  magistrates  against  the 
practice  by  petty  officials  of  annoying  and  persecut- 
ing native  converts.  But  this  is  merely  an  act  of 
friendly  intervention. 

2.  How  far  should  our  Government  go  in  securing 
to  our  missionaries  the  enjoyment  of  their  rights  and 
privileges  in  the  prosecution  of  their  work?  This 
is  a  more  difficult  question  than  the  first. 

Can  we  say  any  less  than  this — that,  in  general, 
it  is  our  Government's  duty  to  protect  missionaries 
as  it  protects  all  other  citizens  in  anything  that  they 
have  a  right  to  do?  How  can  any  discrimination 
against  them  be  made?  They  ask  for  protection 
only  as  American  citizens  and  only  in  the  enjoyment 
of  rights  to  which  they  are  clearly  entitled  under 
treaties  or  the  recognized  principles  of  international 
law.     And  this  protection  no  self-respecting  Govern- 

[265] 


SELECTED      ADDRESSES 


ment  can  refuse  them  without  forfeiting  the  esteem 
of  its  citizens  and  the  respect  of  foreign  States. 

It  is,  in  my  opinion,  not  wise  for  our  government 
to  interpose,  except  by  respectful  request,  for  the 
protection  of  native  converts  against  persecution 
and  injustice.  The  French  do,  under  the  Capitu- 
lations, take  native  Roman  Catholic  converts  in 
Turkey  under  their  formal  protection.  Possibly 
we  could  make  an  argument  for  similar  action  in 
that  country  on  the  same  grounds,  and  in  China 
under  the  Treaty  of  1858.  But  we  have  generally 
refrained  from  taking  foreigners  under  our  protec- 
tion, though  for  a  time  in  Turkey  we  had  several 
foreigners  enrolled  in  our  legation  as  proteges  of  our 
Government.  To  attempt  this  carries  us  on  to  deli- 
cate ground,  and  it  is  better  not  to  make  the  effort. 

Again  I  suppose  we  shall  all  agree  that  we  should 
not  make  war  upon  any  nation  for  the  sake  of  carry- 
ing Christianity  into  it.  I  need  not  pause  to  argue 
on  that  point. 

But  when  missionaries  have  entered  a  country 
under  treaty  stipulations,  and  all  the  resources  of 
diplomacy  have  proved  unavailing  to  secure  their 
protection,  shall  a  display  of  force  be  made  to 
protect  them? 

Many  hesitate  or  refuse  to  give  an  affirmative 
answer  to  that  question.  They  say  first  that  it  is 
incompatible  with  the  spirit  of  Christianity  to  use 
force  in  propagating  the  Gospel  of  Peace  and  Love, 
and   secondly,   that  the   display   of  force  is  of  no 

[266] 


MISSIONS     TO     GOVERNMENTS 

service  and  is  a  sham  unless  the  government  is  ready 
to  follow  it  with  greater  force  and  so  to  resort  to  war, 
if  protection  cannot  otherwise  be  secured  for  the 
missionaries. 

To  which  it  may  be  replied,  first,  that  in  the  case 
supposed  force  is  not  used  or  threatened  for  propa- 
gating the  Gospel,  but  for  protecting  the  lives  and 
property  of  citizens,  whose  guaranteed  rights  as 
citizens  are  threatened.  And  if  their  rights  are  not 
respected,  if  their  own  Government  allows  them  to 
be  divested  of  their  rights  and  makes  no  effort  to 
see  that  the  treaty  stipulations  are  enforced  for  their 
safety,  what  assurance  will  there  be  for  the  rights 
of  other  citizens  of  their  country?  The  Government 
which  breaks  treaties  with  respect  to  missionaries 
and  sees  that  their  own  Government  takes  no  steps 
to  protect  them  will  easily  yield  to  the  temptation 
to  infringe  on  the  rights  of  other  citizens.  Is  it 
not  possible  that  because  our  Government  has 
allowed  outrages  against  our  missionaries  to  go  on 
since  1883  in  Turkey — highway  robbery,  brutal 
assault,  destruction  of  buildings — without  any 
demonstration  beyond  peaceful  and  patient  argu- 
ment, the  Ottoman  government  is  now  proceeding  in  so 
high-handed  a  manner  to  prevent  by  false  allegations 
the  importation  of  our  flour  and  our  pork?  A  nation 
which  allows  one  class  of  its  citizens  who  are  of  the 
purest  character  and  most  unselfish  spirit  to  be 
insulted  and  outraged  with  impunity  in  a  foreign 
land  must  not  be   surprised  if   other  classes  of  its 

[267] 


SELECTED      ADDRESSES 


citizens  are  also  imposed  on  and  wronged  in  that  land, 
wherever  selfish  interests  are  invoked  against  them. 
We  are  now  rejoicing  over  the  prospect  of  an  "open 
door"  into  China,  not  only  in  the  sense  of  that  term 
in  the  correspondence  of  the  Secretary  of  State,  but 
also  in  the  larger  sense  of  freer  access  for  trade  to 
all  parts  of  China.  We  are  hoping  to  build  and  equip 
railways  for  that  empire.  W^e  therefore  need  abso- 
lute protection  for  our  engineers,  mechanics,  and 
merchants  in  the  interior  of  China.  Have  our 
business  men  reflected  on  the  probable  consequence 
to  their  agents  in  China  of  allowing  our  missionaries 
to  be  attacked  by  mobs?  A  foreigner  is  to  those 
mobs  a  foreigner,  whatever  his  occupation,  and 
they  rarely  discriminate  between  the  foreign  mer- 
chant and  the  foreign  teacher.  If  we  allow  teachers 
to  be  mobbed  with  impunity  we  must  expect  railway 
builders  and  merchants  to  share  the  same  fate. 

The  question  we  are  considering  is  by  no  means 
so  simple  as  the  critics  of  missions  think.  Careful 
observation  will  show  that  our  large  mercantile  inter- 
ests are  likely  to  be  imperilled  by  our  neglect  to  insist 
on  the  rights  which  citizens  of  any  honorable  calling 
are  entitled  to  under  treaties  or  international  law. 

Secondly,  a  display  of  force  does  not  necessarily 
mean  war.  It  is  certainly  an  emphatic  mode  of 
making  a  demand.  It  may  at  the  worst  issue  only 
in  reprisals.  It  often  insures  the  prompt  settlement  of 
diflSculties  which  if  allowed  to  drag  on  and  accumulate 
would  end  in  war.    Therefore,  wisely  and  opportunely 

[268] 


MISSIONS     TO     GOVERNMENTS 

made,  a  proper  demonstration  in  support  of  a  just 
demand  may  obviate  the  ultimate  necessity  of  war. 

So  far  as  the  missionary  interests  are  concerned 
we  could  not  desire  a  war  to  be  waged  avowedly  in 
defence  of  them  alone.  Not  only  would  it  seem  to 
us  all  out  of  keeping  with  the  spirit  of  Christianity, 
but  it  might  destroy  all  prospect  of  subsequently 
disseminating  Christianity  among  the  people  with 
whom  we  should  be  at  war.  If  our  missionaries 
can  remain  in  a  foreign  country  only  on  condition 
that  we  extort  from  the  government  of  that  country 
permission  for  them  to  remain  by  covering  them  with 
a  battery  of  artillery,  then  so  far  as  they  alone  are 
concerned,  we  might  better  obey  the  injunction  of 
our  Lord  to  his  disciples  to  shake  the  dust  from  their 
feet  at  the  gates  of  hostile  cities  and  move  on. 

But  that  is  not  the  alternative  actually  presented 
to  us.  The  two  countries  in  which  the  missionary 
crises  are  oftenest  acute  in  our  day  are  the  Chinese 
and  Ottoman  Empires.  In  neither  has  the  Govern- 
ment undertaken  to  expel  the  missionaries.  In 
the  former  it  has  often  failed  to  suppress  lawless 
attacks  on  them  and  on  their  property.  In  the 
latter,  sometimes  instigated  by  mischievous  men, 
the  officials  have  often  interfered  with  the  labors  of 
the  missionaries,  and  the  Government  has  failed  to 
pay  for  property  destroyed  by  its  own  soldiers  in 
time  of  popular  tumult.  There  is  reason  to  believe 
that  in  both  countries  on  certain  occasions  the  Gov- 
ernments were  not  unwilling  that  some  of  the  offences 

[269] 


SELECTED      ADDRESSES 


named  should  be  committed.  In  China  whatever 
animosity  has  been  shown  to  the  missionaries  has 
generally  been  manifested  against  them  as  foreigners 
rather  than  as  Christians.  In  Turkey  the  animosity, 
so  far  as  it  exists,  has  been  chiefly  due  either  to  the 
rivalry  of  other  sects  or  to  the  fact  that  largely  the 
missionary  work  is  carried  on  among  the  Armenians, 
with  whom  the  Turks  have  of  late  been  so  at  variance. 

The  problem  then  actually  is,  not  how  to  prevent 
the  expulsion  of  missionaries,  but  in  two  empires 
where  they  have  unquestionable  right  to  labor,  how 
to  protect  them  from  unlawful  annoyance  and  from 
the  destruction  of  their  property. 

The  problem  is  not  a  simple  one  for  the  Govern- 
ment. If  it  does  nothing  but  register  requests 
for  justice,  injustice  may  be  done,  not  only  to  mis- 
sionaries, but  also  to  other  citizens.  These  dilatory 
oriental  governments,  embarrassed  by  many  diflScult 
problems  of  internal  administration,  do  not  willingly 
act  except  under  some  pressure.  And  pressure, 
which  is  not  war,  and  which  will  probably  not  lead 
to  war,  can  be  brought  to  bear  by  diplomatic  and 
naval  agencies. 

Our  Government  was  never  in  so  good  a  condition 
to  pursue  such  a  policy.  It  has  a  prestige  among 
oriental  nations  before  unknown.  Its  voice,  when 
it  speaks  with  an  imperative  tone,  will  now  be  heard. 
The  question  for  it  is  far  larger  than  a  missionary 
question.  An  influential  American  citizen,  not  a 
missionary,  has  lately  written  me  from  an  oriental 

[270] 


MISSIONS     TO     GOVERNMENTS 


country,  where  our  requests  have  received  little 
attention,  saying,  "If  our  Government  proposes  to 
do  nothing  for  American  citizens  they  should  say  so 
and  turn  us  over  to  the  care  of  the  British  embassy." 

Such  language  as  that  makes  one's  blood  tingle 
and  stirs  us  to  ask  afresh,  not  alone  as  friends  of 
missionaries,  but  as  American  citizens,  what  policy 
will  our  nation  adopt  to  secure  the  rights  of  all  our 
countrymen  of  whatever  pursuit  who  are  dwelling 
under  treaty  guarantees  in  China  and  Turkej^. 
The  friends  of  missions  ask  no  exceptional  favors 
from  the  Government.  They  simply  seek  for  such 
protection  as  their  fellow-citizens  need. 

It  is  of  course  for  our  Government  to  say  at  what 
time  and  by  what  methods  it  shall  act.  It  is  some- 
times wise  and  even  necessary  for  a  Government  to 
postpone  seeking  a  settlement  of  difficulties  with  a 
foreign  Power  even  when  it  is  clear  that  a  settlement 
is  highly  desirable.  Great  exigencies  may  require 
delay.  We  must  allow  our  authorities  to  decide 
when  and  how  to  proceed.  We  must  exercise  the 
patience  which  patriotism  calls  for.  But  we  may 
be  permitted  without  impropriety  to  express  our 
desire  and  our  opinion  that  our  Government  should 
find  some  way  to  make  it  absolutely  clear  to  oriental 
countries  that  it  intends  to  secure  the  protection  for 
all  our  citizens,  including  missionaries,  to  which  they 
are  entitled  by  treaties  and  by  international  law. 


[271] 


XI 

THE  TURKISH   CAPITULATIONS 


READ   BEFORE    THE    AMERICAN    HISTORICAL    ASSOCIA- 
TION  AT   DETROIT,    IN   DECEMBER,    1900 


XI 
THE   TURKISH    CAPITULATIONS 

J^INCE  the  capture  of  Constantinople  by  the  Turks 
in  1453  the  relations  of  the  Western  Nations  to  the 
Ottoman  Empire  have  been  in  many  respects  unique. 
These  relations  were  determined  and  defined  by 
decrees  of  the  sultans,  who  granted  large  privileges 
and  powers  to  Europeans  resident  on  their  soil. 
To  these  decrees  in  due  time  the  name  of  Capitula- 
tions was  given,  apparently  for  the  reason  that  they 
were  divided  into  articles  or  chapters.  They  were 
personal  grants,  valid  only  for  the  life  of  the 
grantor.  Hence  they  were  renewed,  often  with 
modifications,  on  the  accession  of  a  new  sultan. 
So  we  find  many  Capitulations  made  with  France, 
England,  and  other  states.  The  earliest  of  these 
Capitulations,  to  which  reference  is  now  made  for 
authority,  is  that  of  1535,  with  Francis  I  of  France. 
It  is  more  specific  and  formal  than  any  previous 
decree.  It  remained  practically  in  force  for  three 
hundred  years. 

It  is  an  interesting  fact  that  concessions  similar 
to  those  made  in  the  Turkish  Capitulations  were 
granted   to   foreigners   in   the   Orient   prior   to   the 

[275  1 


SELECTED      ADDRESSES 


establishment  of  the  Ottoman  power  in  the  Levant. 
There  is  a  tradition  that  ten  centuries  ago  Arab 
traders  were  admitted  to  Canton  with  permission 
to  erect  a  mosque  and  have  a  cadi  and  their  own 
laws,^  and  another  that  about  the  same  time  the 
califs  of  Egypt  granted  similar  privileges  to  the 
merchants  of  Amalfi,  It  is  certain  that  in  the  Latin 
colonies  in  the  Greek  Empire  and  on  the  coast  of 
Africa  and  of  Syria  in  the  eleventh  and  twelfth 
centuries  the  traders  from  Amalfi  and  Venice  carried 
with  them  their  local  laws  and  jurisdiction.  After 
the  crusades  the  Prankish  barons  holding  Eastern 
ports  sought  successfully  to  attract  Western  trade 
by  releasing  it  from  many  of  the  burdens  imposed  on 
it  in  Italy  and  France  in  the  form  of  taxes,  imposts, 
the  droit  dfauhaine,  etc.  The  foreign  community  or 
colony  was  governed  under  the  laws  of  its  own  land 
by  a  consul,  or  an  official  having  some  other  title, 
but  invested  with  the  powers  of  a  magistrate.  In 
the  Mussulman  States  of  Northern  Africa  and  the 
Levant,  in  the  fourteenth  century,  the  foreigners  of 
each  nation  were  often  gathered  in  one  large  establish- 
ment with  their  shops,  their  chapel,  and  their  consular 
residence.  At  the  same  period  in  the  Greek  Empire 
and  in  Christian  States  in  Syria  the  foreigners  re- 
ceived sometimes  the  concession  of  a  whole  street 
or  even  of  a  quarter  of  the  city  for  their  churches, 
residences,  mills,  and  baths,  and  in  some  cases  of 

^  Travers  Twiss  in  Revtie  de  Droit  International,  1893,  p.  207.     Par- 
dessua,  Lois  Maritimes,  II,  p.  cxxxviii. 

[276] 


TURKISH     CAPITULATIONS 


lands  adjacent  to  the  city.  But  in  all  these  Oriental 
States  the  Western  merchants  had  the  privilege  of 
exterritorial  jurisdiction.  These  concessions  seem  to 
have  been  due  to  a  recognition  of  the  wide  difference 
between  the  Eastern  and  the  Western  civilization, 
laws,  customs,  and  manners,  and  to  have  been  deemed 
conducive  to  the  harmonious  life  of  the  natives 
and  the  foreigners.  They  were  a  natural  outgrowth 
of  the  conditions  in  which  these  peoples  of  diverse 
origins  found  themselves  and  were  regarded  as  no 
more  beneficial  to  the  foreigners  than  to  the 
natives. 

Pradier  Fodere,  who  gave  special  study  to  this 
subject,  thinks  that  the  Mohammedans  were  very 
ready  to  grant  large  privileges  to  the  foreign  mer- 
chants because  of  their  disinclination  to  leave  their 
own  country  for  the  purposes  of  trade,  and  because 
of  their  lack  of  experience  in  navigation  and  their 
need  of  attracting  foreigners  to  make  use  of  their 
extended  coast,  their  fine  harbors,  and  their  abundant 
products.^ 

As  Mohammed  II,  when  he  captured  Constanti- 
nople in  1453,  was  familiar  with  these  usages,  which 
had  been  followed  in  Moslem  and  Christian  seaports 
of  the  Levant  for  three  or  four  centuries,  and  which 
on  the  whole  had  contributed  to  the  harmony  be- 
tween the  natives  and  the  foreigners,  it  is  not  sur- 
prising that  he  decided  to  grant  to  the  foreign 
residents    in    his    domain    substantially    the    same 

'  Revue  de  Droit  International,  1869,  p.  119. 

[277] 


SELECTED      ADDRESSES 


privileges  which  they  had  previously  enjoyed.  It 
afforded  him  the  simplest  and  easiest  method  of 
administration.  It  was  for  his  convenience  quite 
as  much  as  for  theirs  that  he  left  large  liberty  to  the 
conquered  Greeks,  and  soon  confirmed  to  the  Greeks 
and  Venetians  and  other  nations  the  privileges  they 
had  enjoyed  under  the  old  Empire.  He  was  inspired 
by  real  statesmanship.  It  may  well  be  doubted 
whether  he  supposed  that  he  was  exercising  special 
generosity  to  the  foreign  powers. 

When  Francis  I  of  France  found  himself  engaged 
in  his  great  conflict  with  the  Emperor  Charles  V, 
he  threw  aside  the  scruples  which  Christian  sovereigns 
had  generally  entertained  against  forming  an  alliance 
with  the  Moslems  and  sought  the  friendship  of  the 
Sultan  Suleiman,  who  was  also  opposing  the  German 
Emperor.  One  of  the  results  of  this  friendship  was 
the  granting  by  the  Sultan  of  what  is  generally 
called  the  First  Capitulation.  Unhappily  the  text 
of  this  important  document  is  lost.  But  as  we  have 
later  Capitulations,  which  we  have  every  reason  to 
suppose  do  not  differ  essentially  from  the  first,  we 
are  reasonabl}^  sure  of  its  import.  It  seems  to  have 
been  in  form  not  a  treaty,  but  a  unilateral  document, 
a  grant  or  concession  by  the  Sultan  to  his  friend,  the 
King  of  France.  It  permitted  to  French  subjects 
the  rights  of  residence,  trade,  and  local  jurisdiction 
which  have  been  since  1535  enjoyed  by  them.  The 
Capitulation  which  is  now  generally  cited  as  the 
basis  of  the  rights  claimed  by  foreigners  is  that  of 

[278] 


TURKISH     CAPITULATIONS 


1740.  Since  by  Capitulations  and  later  by  treaties 
other  nations  have  received  the  same  rights  as  "the 
Franks,"  all  nations  refer  back  to  the  Capitulation 
of  1740  to  sustain  their  claims. 

The  substance  of  the  concessions  in  the  chief  Capit- 
ulations was  as  follows:  The  Franks  were  to  have 
the  liberty  to  travel  in  all  parts  of  the  Ottoman 
Empire.  They  were  to  carry  on  trade  according 
to  their  own  laws  and  usages  They  were  to  have 
liberty  of  worship.  They  were  to  be  free  from  all 
duties  save  customs  duties.  They  were  to  enjoy 
inviolability  of  domicile.  Their  ambassadors  and 
consuls  were  to  have  exterritorial  jurisdiction  over 
them.  Even  if  they  committed  a  crime,  they  were 
to  be  arrested  by  an  Ottoman  official  only  in  the 
presence  of  a  consular  or  diplomatic  official  of  their 
own  country.  The  Ottoman  officers,  if  asked  by 
a  consular  or  diplomatic  officer  to  aid  in  the  arrest 
of  a  French  subject,  must  render  such  service.  The 
Franks  had  the  full  right  of  making  wills.  If  they 
died  intestate  in  Turkey,  their  own  consul  must 
take  possession  of  their  property  and  remit  it  to  their 
heirs.  In  fact,  the  Franks  and  other  nations  at  last 
had  imperia  in  imperio. 

Naturally  enough  other  Western  Powers  soon 
sought  to  secure  the  same  privileges  as  France 
In  1579  Queen  Elizabeth  endeavored  to  secure  the 
favor  of  the  Sultan  by  reminding  him  that  like  him 
she  and  her  subjects  were  opposed  to  the  worship 
of    images.     This   remarkable   attempt    to   show  a 

[279] 


SELECTED   ADDRESSES 


resemblance  between  Protestantism  and  Mohamme- 
danism was  not  immediately  successful  in  the  face 
of  French  opposition.  But  in  1583  the  Queen  did 
succeed  in  establishing  relations  with  the  Sultan 
and  appointed  William  Harebone  ambassador.  The 
Capitulation  was  afterwards  many  times  renewed. 
The  Netherlands  received  a  Capitulation  in  1609, 
and  Austria  in  1615. 

In  1673  France  obtained  a  new  power;  namely,  the 
exclusive  right  of  protecting  under  her  flag  the  sub- 
jects of  sovereigns  who  had  received  no  Capitulations. 
This  gave  her  prestige  in  Western  Europe  and  placed 
several  Powers  under  obligations  to  her.  But  in 
1675  England,  after  a  vigorous  effort,  succeeded  in 
depriving  her  of  the  exclusive  right  of  protection  of 
other  nations,  so  that  some  states,  Genoa  for  instance, 
had  the  option  of  English  or  French  protection. 
In  1718  Austria  got  permission  for  Genoa  and 
Leghorn  to  use  her  flag.  The  smaller  states  were 
for  a  long  time  glad  to  secure  the  protection  of  one 
of  the  strong  Powers. 

Perhaps  no  concession  made  by  the  Capitulations 
to  foreign  powers  has  been  more  abused  than  the 
grant  of  this  right  of  protection.  We  are  all  indebted 
to  M.  Francis  Rey  for  the  thorough  study  he  has 
made  of  this  subject,  and  I  borrow  mainly  from  him 
the  statements  which  follow.^  The  French,  English, 
and  Romans  seem  to  have  been  especially  guilty  of 

*  La  Protection  Diplomatique  et  Consulaire  dans  les  Echelles  du  Levant 
et  de  Barbarie,  par  Francis  Rey.     Paris,  1899. 

[280] 


TURKISH     CAPITULATIONS 


abuses  of  the  privilege  of  taking  foreigners  under 
their  protection.  They  sold  to  native  Greeks  and 
Armenians  the  privilege  of  protection  by  a  document 
which  exempted  them  from  paying  duties  on  goods 
imported.  Many  of  these  became  rich  by  this 
advantage  and  were  allowed  to  make  a  transfer  of 
their  privilege  for  a  consideration.  Ambassadors 
were  allowed  to  have  a  large  number  of  dragomans, 
to  each  of  whom  they  gave  a  barat,  which  secured 
for  them  valuable  exemptions.  The  ambassadors 
came  to  dispose  of  these  appointments  or  barats  for 
sums  ranging  from  twenty-five  hundred  to  four  thou- 
sand piasters.  One  of  the  French  ambassadors,  it 
is  stated  in  an  ofiicial  report,  received  more  than 
four  hundred  thousand  francs  from  this  source. 
The  English  ambassador  is  said  to  have  received 
two  thousand  to  three  thousand  pounds  sterling 
income  from  the  same  source.  The  ambassadors 
presumed  to  bestow  this  barat  for  life.  They  used 
to  bribe  officials  even  in  the  Sultan's  household. 
They  went  so  far  as  to  issue  patents  of  protection 
to  whole  families  of  Greek  or  Armenian  subjects  of 
the  Sultan. 

Russia  and  Austria  shamefully  abused  this  right 
of  protection  for  political  ends.  Rivals  in  seeking 
influence  in  Moldavia  and  Wallachia  in  1780  and 
1782,  their  consuls  competed  with  each  other  in 
gratuitously  granting  patents  of  protection  to  the 
natives.  At  the  close  of  the  last  century  Austria 
had     by    this    process    more    than    two    hundred 

[  281  ] 


SELECTED      ADDRESSES 


thousand  subjects  in  Moldavia  and  sixty  thousand 
in  Wallachia.  But  these  last  were  afterwards 
made  Russians  by  changing  the  patents,  when  the 
Russian  influence  became  preponderant  in  Wal- 
lachia. 

In  1806,  in  order  to  embarrass  Russia,  Napoleon 
put  an  end  to  the  abuse  by  French  ambassadors  of 
the  right  of  issuing  the  barat  to  any  persons  but  the 
dragomans.  And  Turkey  succeeded  in  persuading 
most  of  the  foreign  Powers  to  imitate  his  example. 
But  this  did  not  prevent  Russia  and  Austria  and 
Great  Britain,  through  their  consuls,  taking  large 
numbers  of  Turkish  rajas  under  their  protection  by 
one  pretence  or  another.  In  1808  it  is  said  that 
Russia  had  one  hundred  and  twenty  thousand 
Greek  subjects  of  the  Sultan,  Austria  a  large  num- 
ber of  Dalmatians  and  Croats,  and  Great  Britain 
many  Indians  and  Maltese  registered  as  their  pro- 
tegSs.  Of  course  they  formed  lawless  crowds  claim- 
ing exemption  from  police  supervision.  Some  of 
the  proteges  were  rich  merchants,  whose  acts  caused 
diplomatic  conflicts.  It  is  not  strange,  therefore, 
that  in  1869  the  Sultan  issued  an  irade  forbidding 
the  naturalization  of  his  subjects  under  a  foreign 
government  unless  they  had  previously  obtained  his 
consent.  Surely  he  had  been  imposed  on  long 
enough. 

The  treaties  of  this  century  between  Turkey  and 
Western  Powers  are  all  based  on  the  Capitulations, 
notably  those  of  1740.     Of  late  years  some  important 

[282  1 


TURKISH     CAPITULATIONS 


changes  have  been  made.  The  most  noteworthy 
are  these :  Down  to  the  nineteenth  century  foreigners 
could  not  hold  real  property  except  under  borrowed 
names.  Since  1867  they  have  been  allowed  to  hold 
it.  Duties  on  imports  were  formerly  only  three 
per  cent.  Now  they  are  eight  per  cent,  but  can 
be  raised  only  by  treaty.  Since  1868  the  inviola- 
bility of  the  domicile  of  a  foreigner  is  limited  to 
residences  within  nine  hours'  journey  of  a  consular 
post.  Questions  of  real  property  are  determined 
in  an  Ottoman  court.  Religious  freedom  is  con- 
firmed in  all  the  treaties. 

Naturally  enough  Turkey  has  made  repeated 
efforts  to  annul  the  Capitulations.  She  tried  to  do 
this  at  the  Paris  Congress  of  1856,  and  again  in 
1862.  But  the  Powers  generally  have  been  un- 
willing to  yield  to  her  desire.  Germany,  whose 
policy  for  some  years  has  been  to  secure  the  favor 
of  the  Sultan,  renounced  the  Capitulations  ten 
years  ago,  but  under  the  most  favored  nation 
clause  in  her  treaties  retains  the  same  privileges  as 
others. 

All  the  Powers  except  the  United  States  have  sur- 
rendered in  large  degree  their  exterritorial  jurisdic- 
tion over  their  subjects,  though  the  consul  of  the 
subject  accused  of  crime  attends  his  trial,  and  if 
injustice  is  threatened,  his  case  is  made  a  matter 
of  diplomatic  consideration. 

Our  insistence  on  exterritorial  jurisdiction  over 
our  citizens  accused  of  crime  now  results  in  the  mis- 

[283] 


SELECTED   ADDRESSES 


carriage  of  justice.  For  the  Turkish  Government 
declines  to  furnish  witnesses  and  allows  the  culprit 
to  escape.  It  maintains  that  we  have  no  right  to 
exercise  the  jurisdiction  we  claim.  It  affirms  that 
our  copy  of  the  Treaty  is  not  correct.  There  is 
great  need  of  the  adjustment  of  the  question  by 
the  negotiation  of  a  new  Treaty. 

We  have  also  a  constant  source  of  difficulty  with 
Turkey  in  respect  to  naturalized  Armenians.  Many 
come  to  this  country  and  take  our  naturalization 
papers  and  return  home  as  American  citizens. 
But  the  Sultan  recognizes  no  naturalization  since 
1869,  unless  it  has  been  made  by  his  consent.  The 
British  avoid  the  trouble  we  have  by  declaring  in 
writing  on  the  passport  of  every  Turkish  subject 
naturalized  in  Great  Britain  that  it  is  not  valid  on 
return  of  the  bearer  to  Turkey.^ 

Until  the  government  of  Turkey  undergoes  im- 
portant improvements,  and  especially  until  justice 
is  more  impartially  administered  by  her  courts,  it 
will  not  be  prudent  for  the  Western  Powers  to  make 
exactly  such  treaties  with  her  as  they  may  properly 
make  with  each  other.  The  difference  between 
the  customs  and  laws  of  the  Mohammedan  nations 

^  This  is  in  accordance  with  the  following  provision  in  the  British 
Naturalization  Act  of  1870.  "An  alien  to  whom  a  certificate  of  naturali- 
zation is  granted  .  .  .  shall  not,  within  the  limits  of  the  foreign  state  of 
which  he  was  a  subject  previously  to  obtaining  his  certificate  of  naturali- 
zation, be  deemed  to  be  a  British  subject  unless  he  has  ceased  to  be  a 
subject  of  that  state  in  pursuance  of  the  laws  thereof,  or  in  pursuance  of 
a  treaty  to  that  effect." 

[284] 


TURKISH     CAPITULATIONS 


on  the  one  hand  and  those  of  the  Christian  nations 
on  the  other  is  so  marked  that  the  relations 
between  the  two  must  long  be  determined  by 
treaties  breathing  something  of  the  spirit  of  the  old 
Capitulations. 


THE    END 


[285] 


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